There was a son, who died young, and then two girls, Lilian the elder of them.

The old man must have been rather eccentric; he brought up the girls very strictly (their mother died when they were children)--would scarcely let them go out of his sight, preached to them a sort of mixture of Christianity and Pantheism, forbade all pleasures except those of home, didn't like them to make acquaintances.

Their mother's sister kept the house; a feeble, very pious creature, probably knowing as much about life as the cat or the canary--so Lilian describes her.

The man came to a sudden end; a brick fell on his head whilst he was going over a new building.
Lilian was then about fifteen.

She had passed the Oxford Local, and was preparing herself to teach--or rather, being prepared at a good school.
"Allen left enough money to provide his daughters with about a hundred a year each; this was to be theirs absolutely when they came of age, or when they married.