Who is Lilly from The Dead and what is their importance?

Lily is the first character introduced in the story. She is the caretaker's daughter, the caretaker being a fellow tenant in the building where the Morkans live. She works as the Morkans' housekeeper, and at the beginning of the story she is busy meeting the guests at the door. Lily makes Gabriel feel uncomfortable after she responds curtly when he asks her if he might be going to her wedding in the future. She says, "The men that is now is only all palaver and what they can get out of you." Kate says that she does not know what has come over Lily and that "she's not the girl she was at all."