"To begin with, they are Judge Greggory's widow and daughter.

They belong to fine families on both sides, and they used to be well off--really wealthy, for a small town.

But the judge was better at money-making than he was at money-keeping, and when he came to die his income stopped, of course, and his estate was found to be in bad shape through reckless loans and worthless investments.

That was eight years ago.

Things went from bad to worse then, until there was almost nothing left." "I knew there was some such story as that back of them," declared Billy.
"But how do you suppose they came here ?" "To get away from--everybody, I suspect," replied Arkwright.