Story summary
Samenvatting van Miss Billy's beslissing
- 8 min. leestijd
- 7 parts
- Binnenkort te beluisteren
A tenor with a girl's nickname follows a Boston songwriter's name across an ocean and into her house.
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Miss Billy's beslissing in het kort
Samenvatting: 8 min leestijd
- Leestijd
- Ongeveer 4 h 35 min3 h 40 min fast, 5 h 30 min slow
- Lengte
- 66.000 woorden
- Bibliotheekniveau
- Gemiddeld longer sentences, everyday words
- Voor het eerst verschenen
- 1912by Eleanor H. Porter
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Hoelang het duurt om de klassiekers te lezen · Bijgewerkt
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Miss Billy's beslissing in short
Miss Billy's Decision follows a generous young woman who is engaged to a painter and caught between her own good heart and other people's ideas. A man arrives under a girl's nickname and brings music and a hidden wish. Each scene has a comic turn, such as a clock that tells a kind lie or a girl who keeps another's place in a line.
What Miss Billy's beslissing is about
Two friends sit in a Paris café, and one of them blurts out a nickname he meant to keep secret. Hugh Calderwell calls his friend Mary Jane in private.
Miss Billy's Decision is a light romance by Eleanor H. Porter, who is best known for Pollyanna. It follows Billy Neilson, a warm-hearted young songwriter who loves to give things away. She is engaged to the painter Bertram Henshaw, and the book turns on misnamings and kind meddling. Under the fun runs a quiet question. Can a woman be loved for herself, and not for the tilt of her chin? You get a warm, funny story about how a gift can help or hurt.
Voor wie is het?. You will enjoy this book if you like warm domestic comedy, gentle romance, mistaken identities and generous heroines, and if you are fond of Boston in the days of touring cars.
The story in 7 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A nickname starts the whole story
The book opens with Hugh Calderwell, a cheerful traveler, and his friend M. J. Arkwright. They have wandered across Europe together for months. Calderwell has settled on calling his friend Mary Jane in private. In a Paris café the name slips out aloud.
Arkwright takes it well. He says his younger brothers and sisters invented the name. He knows a Billy, he adds, but she is a girl. Calderwell sits up at once. Billy Neilson is the girl he has asked to marry him every three months, and she has refused him each time as if declining dessert.
Calderwell tells how Billy once wrote to a family friend named William Henshaw and asked for a home. She signed the letter Billy, so the brothers expected a boy. They fitted up a room with guns and fishing rods, and William went to the station and met a girl.
Arkwright listens closely. He has sung Billy's songs. Later that day he says he is going back to America to work for grand opera. A joke about a name carries a real wish, and the wish is already on the road.
- 2Begin gratis met lezen
Billy opens her door to a stranger
In Boston, Billy sits at her desk at Hillside, her pretty home on Corey Hill.
- 3Begin gratis met lezen
A houseful of Henshaws and a wedding
At Thanksgiving the Strata is spotless.
- 4Begin gratis met lezen
Songs and duets draw Billy and Arkwright close
Billy soon finds herself singing with the new tenor.
- 5Begin gratis met lezen
Billy gives sugarplums and meets Alice Greggory
Billy believes that poor people need frosting on their cake as well as bread.
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Billy plays Cupid and gets it wrong
Arkwright later tells Billy that he once knew the Greggorys in his own hometown.
- 7Begin gratis met lezen
Billy fears she is only a picture
Bertram's studio is full of Billy.
Read all 7 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Billy Neilson A warm, impulsive young songwriter in Boston who gives away kindness freely and wants to be loved for herself, not for her pose.
- Bertram Henshaw A well-known painter, engaged to Billy, who adores her but fears that music will steal her away while he struggles with a famous portrait.
- M. J. Arkwright A tall young tenor, called Mary Jane by his family, who comes to Boston to study opera and hopes to meet Billy.
- Aunt Hannah Stetson Billy's gentle companion, always in shawls, who worries about proprieties and keeps a clock that strikes the wrong hour on purpose.
- Kate Hartwell The Henshaw brothers' managing sister from the West, who still wishes Billy would marry William and says so plainly.
- Alice Greggory A proud young music teacher, daughter of a disgraced judge, who refuses charity and wants only to earn her own way.
- Marie Hawthorn A sweet music teacher who loves puddings and darning and marries Cyril, Bertram's difficult composer brother.
- William Henshaw The eldest Henshaw brother, a kind collector of teapots and mirror knobs who loves Billy like a daughter.
How it ends (spoiler)
Billy breaks the engagement by letter, convinced she hinders Bertram's art, then leaves Boston with Aunt Hannah for months. She returns in July to hear that Bertram has been hurt in an automobile accident and has called for her. She rushes to him in the rain. They clear up every misunderstanding, and Bertram insists on marrying her within a week.
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Vragen over Miss Billy's beslissing
What is Miss Billy's Decision about?
It follows Billy Neilson, a young songwriter in Boston, engaged to the painter Bertram Henshaw. A tenor who is known by a girl's nickname arrives and sets off a series of mistaken ideas about love, music and art.
Who is Mary Jane in Miss Billy's Decision?
Mary Jane is the family nickname of M. J. Arkwright, a young tenor from the West. Aunt Hannah and Billy first think the name belongs to a girl, and the surprise at the station is one of the book's best-known scenes.
Is Miss Billy's Decision a sequel?
Yes, it continues the story of Billy Neilson and the Henshaw brothers. It also works on its own, because the characters and past events are explained clearly as the story moves along.
Is Miss Billy's Decision easy to read?
Yes, in its plain, friendly style. The book uses short chapters, lively dialogue and recurring jokes, such as Aunt Hannah's shawls and her clock, so it is easy to follow and pleasant to read aloud.
What is the main message of Miss Billy's Decision?
The book suggests that love needs honest words. Its characters suffer from guesses and silence, and it shows that kindness, loyalty and a good heart go further when people tell each other what they truly feel.
Verwijs naar deze uitgave
Porter, Eleanor H. Miss Billy's Decision. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/miss-billys-decision.
Porter, E. H. (2026). Miss Billy's decision. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/miss-billys-decision (Original work published 1912)
Porter, Eleanor H. Miss Billy's Decision. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/miss-billys-decision.
@book{porter2026miss,
author = {Porter, Eleanor H.},
title = {Miss Billy's Decision},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/miss-billys-decision},
note = {First published 1912}
}
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