Previous
Joe Dagget
Lily Dyer is Joe Dagget’s mother’s caretaker. Lily is strong and proud, and well-liked around town. She and Joe have fallen for each other since Joe has returned from Australia, although neither is willing to break up Joe and Louisa’s engagement. A week before the wedding is meant to take place, she and Joe meet at night along the same path where Louisa is taking a walk. Without knowing that Louisa can hear them speaking, Lily informs Joe that she is leaving town, that she won’t “fret” after a married man, and that even if Joe were to leave Louisa for her, she wouldn’t accept it. She says all this firmly, however she softens a little when she admits that she’ll never marry, because she’ll never feel about another man the way she feels about Joe. Lit in the moonlight, Louisa thinks Lily looks almost like a princess. The two women never disrespect each other over the issue of Joe’s affection. Though the story does not follow Lily’s fate, a reader can presume that she and Joe are free to marry after Louisa breaks off her engagement.
Lily Dyer Quotes in A New England Nun
The A New England Nun quotes below are all either spoken by Lily Dyer or refer to Lily Dyer. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
A New England Nun
Quotes
He came twice a week to see Louisa Ellis, and every time, sitting there in her delicately sweet room, he felt as if surrounded by a hedge of lace. He was afraid to stir lest he should put a clumsy foot or hand through the fairy web, and he had always the consciousness that Louisa was watching fearfully lest he should.
Still the lace and Louisa commanded perforce his perfect respect and patience and loyalty. They were to be married in a month, after a singular courtship which had lasted for a matter of fifteen years.
Related Characters:
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“If you should jilt her to-morrow, I wouldn’t have you,” spoke up the girl, with sudden vehemence.
“Well, I ain’t going to give you the chance,” said he; “but I don’t believe you would, either.”
“You’d see I wouldn’t. Honor’s honor, an’ right’s right. An’ I’d never think anything of any man that went against ’em for me or any other girl; you’d find that out, Joe Dagget.”
She sat at her window and meditated. In the evening Joe came. Louisa Ellis had never known that she had any diplomacy in her, but when she came to look for it that night she found it, although meek of its kind, among her little feminine weapons. Even now she could hardly believe that she had heard aright, and that she would not do Joe a terrible injury should she break her troth-plight. She wanted to sound him without betraying too soon her own inclinations in the matter. She did it successfully, and they finally came to an understanding; but it was a difficult thing, for he was as afraid of betraying himself as she.
Related Characters:
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire A New England Nun LitChart as a printable PDF.
Lily Dyer Quotes in A New England Nun
The A New England Nun quotes below are all either spoken by Lily Dyer or refer to Lily Dyer. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
A New England Nun
Quotes
He came twice a week to see Louisa Ellis, and every time, sitting there in her delicately sweet room, he felt as if surrounded by a hedge of lace. He was afraid to stir lest he should put a clumsy foot or hand through the fairy web, and he had always the consciousness that Louisa was watching fearfully lest he should.
Still the lace and Louisa commanded perforce his perfect respect and patience and loyalty. They were to be married in a month, after a singular courtship which had lasted for a matter of fifteen years.
Related Characters:
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“If you should jilt her to-morrow, I wouldn’t have you,” spoke up the girl, with sudden vehemence.
“Well, I ain’t going to give you the chance,” said he; “but I don’t believe you would, either.”
“You’d see I wouldn’t. Honor’s honor, an’ right’s right. An’ I’d never think anything of any man that went against ’em for me or any other girl; you’d find that out, Joe Dagget.”
She sat at her window and meditated. In the evening Joe came. Louisa Ellis had never known that she had any diplomacy in her, but when she came to look for it that night she found it, although meek of its kind, among her little feminine weapons. Even now she could hardly believe that she had heard aright, and that she would not do Joe a terrible injury should she break her troth-plight. She wanted to sound him without betraying too soon her own inclinations in the matter. She did it successfully, and they finally came to an understanding; but it was a difficult thing, for he was as afraid of betraying himself as she.
Related Characters:
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
