She would have preferred to live even in a poor and grimy street which neighboured the main track of business and pleasure.
Here she had spent as much of her life as she remembered, from the end of her third year.

Mr.Lord never willingly talked of days gone by, but by questioning him she had learnt that her birthplace was a vaguely indicated part of northern London; there, it seemed, her mother had died, a year or so after the birth of her brother Horace.

The relatives of whom she knew were all on her father's side, and lived scattered about England.

When she sought information concerning her mother, Mr.
Lord became evasive and presently silent; she had seen no portrait of the dead parent.

Of late years this obscure point of the family history had often occupied her thoughts.
Nancy deemed herself a highly educated young woman,--'cultured' was the word she would have used.