Caesar

Caesar is the old yellow dog Louisa Ellis keeps chained securely to his hut in her yard. "Fat and sleepy" with "yellow rings which looked like spectacles around his dim old eyes," Caesar "seldom lift[s] up his voice in a growl or bark." The pet of Louisa's cherished dead brother, Caesar bit someone when he was a puppy and has been restrained ever since. Although he has become, over the years, just as placid as Louisa herself, his reputation as a ferocious, bloodthirsty animal has taken on a life of its own. He has become something of a village legend and everyone except Joe Dagget, Louisa's fiance, firmly believes in his ferocity.

Joe Dagget

Joe Dagget, Louisa Ellis's fiance for the past fifteen years, has spent fourteen of those years in Australia, where he went to make his fortune. He has returned and he and Louisa are...