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M. Daniel Touchett is Isabel’s wealthy uncle who owns Gardencourt. He too is an expatriate American living in England. Somehow or the other he seems to have the best of both the cultures - the European as well as the American. His American inheritance is still intact. He admires and respects Lord Warburton and Lord Warburton’s world, while at the same time he represents quite different standards. He is quite generous towards his friends.
As a relief from the boredom which Lord Warburton feels, Mr. Touchett suggests him to marry an interesting woman. Yet, he is the first person, we meet in the novel, whose matrimonial life is an unhappy one. He has a great love for his son Ralph who is also a ‘lame duck’ like him.
Isabel’s company greatly pleased him. Isabel reminded him of his wife in her teens. When Isabel told him about the rejection of Lord Warburton, he did not press her to marry Lord Warburton and agreed with Isabel as to what would be the ‘Cost’ of such a union.
On his death-bed; he urged Ralph to marry Isabel. But Ralph thought that he could never be a good partner for Isabel. He wanted Jier to have enough money in order to meet the requirements of her imagination. Mr. Touchett told him that he had already left a large legacy for her and thus he became “the beneficent author of her eternal woe.