Lillian Powell

Lillian Powell is a writer, an arts intellectual and a Saint Denis socialite. She is married to David, a composer whose work includes a long timpani passage and whose affections, by Lillian's account, run to percussionists. Her marriage and social position place her within Lemoyne's artistic society, far removed from the rougher life beyond Saint Denis.

Lillian appears among the guests at Mayor Henri Lemieux's party in Saint Denis. She remains part of the city's fashionable company during the gathering, alongside the politicians, industrialists and artists invited by the mayor. This is her only appearance in the story's formal social circles.

Later, Lillian sits on a sofa in the Bastille Saloon in Saint Denis, Bayou Nwa, smoking an unidentified substance and launching into erratic tirades. She demands drink or cocaine, mocks local residents for voting, and recognizes that those who approach her are outsiders, calling them "cowboy," "tough boy" or "darling." Each meeting brings a new subject for her rant. After four encounters, she disappears from the saloon for the rest of the story.