Polly has full confidence in her mother’s abilities to persuade Bob to marry her. This strength of character (or Mrs Mooney’s abilities) is also highlighted in the story when the reader learns that Mrs Mooney is called The Madam. Mrs Mooney being referred to as The Madam is significant, a madam would have been a term that many would have used, at the time the story was written, for a woman who runs a brothel (or is in control of a brothel). Though there is no suggestion that Mrs Mooney is running a brothel, her boarding house nonetheless has started to get a bad reputation.