They were morbidly so.

From their cheap little cottage, where they did their own work, they stepped out in their shabby garments and old-fashioned hats with heads even more proudly erect than in the old days when their home and their gowns and their doings were the admiration and envy of the town.

You see, they didn't want--that pity." "I _do_ see," cried Billy, her face aglow with sudden understanding; "and I don't believe pity would be--nice!" Her own chin was held high as she spoke.
"It must have been hard, indeed," murmured Aunt Hannah with a sigh, as she set down her teacup.
"It was," nodded Arkwright.

"Of course Mrs.Greggory, with her crippled foot, could do nothing to bring in any money except to sew a little.

It all depended on Alice; and when matters got to their worst she began to teach.