Their father, a Manchester cotton-broker in a small way, had died some six months before this date, leaving more debts than fortune.

The two girls had found themselves left with very small means, and had lived, of late, mainly in lodgings--unfurnished rooms--with some of their old furniture and household things round them.

Their father, though unsuccessful in business, had been ambitious in an old-fashioned way for his children, and they had been brought up 'as gentlefolks'-- that is to say without any trade or profession.
But their poverty had pinched them disagreeably--especially Bridget, in whom it had produced a kind of angry resentment.

Their education had not been serious enough, in these days of competition, to enable them to make anything of teaching after their Father's death.

Nelly's water-colour drawing, for instance, though it was a passion with her, was quite untrained, and its results unmarketable.