Doris Cox

Doris is Dean Benajmin Cox's wife. 

Doris met the Dean at 29 and married him when she was 30 and he was 25. 

At that time, the Dean was working on his PhD thesis in theology, which centered on how the Old Testament differed from the New Testament and how the Old Testament informs New Testament ethics. 

Doris is the daughter of an influential Evangelical Protestant pastor, who knew the Dean from their trips to the museum and Bible studies. Both Doris' father and the Dean are particularly interested in Old Testament prophecies (particularly about the Second Coming), which lays the groundwork for the Dean's later friendship with Joel. 

Doris is a tall, lanky woman who has no real passions or sense of self. She has always felt self-conscious about her height (she towers over most men at 177 cm) and never felt she was interesting or beautiful enough.

She is not a self-aware person and mostly married the Dean because he checked off all the right boxes and because she was "getting old." Although the Dean is a respectful, considerate, and righteous man who always remembers their anniversaries and gives her lavish gifts for her birthday, she never comes to love him (and vice versa). On the surface, they appear to be a great couple, but they never experience any kind of satisfying emotional, sexual, or even spiritual (despite both of them having Bible Studies at least twice a week) intimacy with one another. 

This is why Doris has an affair with Ardalion in 1921, when she is 60 and Ardalion is in his late 40s. At this point of her life, she knows better than to expect love - but with Ardalion, at least she can experience some exciting moments.