It hadn't always been this way for us. I guess to really understand, you'd have go start with Beatrix, our mother. There was no doubt that Beatrix was a beautiful woman with smooth porcelain skin that any of the stage beauties would have envied and thick red hair. Unfortunately, her vanity was in direct proportion to her beauty.
Not a day would pass when she wouldn't spend hours in her dressing room (Which doubled as my bedroom, I guess mine because I took up less room than my sisters and that left more room for Beatrix's clothing.)

And equal time spent at her vanity table making certain that every feature was played up with cosmetics, that every strand of hair was in place.

Despite Beatrix's airs, Father was a man of modest means, which I think Beatrix hated more than anything else. He worked as a butler for Fitz-John Morrison III. It was long hours and he was expected to remain there often for weeks at a time. Beatrix never hesitated to spend every clipped pence Father brought home on clothes and furnishing for the house to keep it up to mode, leaving father to have to beg and borrow money for “silly” things like food for us and school supplies.

For all of that, which I only found out of later, father did his best for us. We were something of a surprise, I think to Beatrix. I knew from hearing her chatting with her friends, that she never intended to have any children and with us she got three in one swoop. Marie-Anne was born last. She was somewhat shy and nice. A true lady even from childhood, if a bit sensitive. She had Beatrix's green eyes and pale skin, and dark gold curls. She wanted to find a beau and settle down, preferably with the love of her life. She wanted a huge family, six children at the very least.

Marie-Leah, the middle, was brasher, more adventurous. She loved clothing, like Beatrix, and cosmetics, but unlike our mother she wasn't arrogant. I don't think Beatrix ever forgave father that Marie-Leah inherited his duskier skin. She also inherited his brown eyes and his thick brown hair. She wanted to be an opera singer and often could be heard belting out arias at the mirror in her room.

Then there was me, as eldest, I don't think I was what either of my parents expected for a daughter.
I looked probably the most like Beatrix, something she was always proud of, except I didn't have her beauty, just the outward trappings, though my hair was a shade darker and not quite as coppery, my eyes were darker too.
And I knew from a very young age that I had no interest in Beatrix's life. I wanted adventure, I didn't want respectability. And Beatrix was horrified when I told my parents I wanted to go to medical school after school. But still, I was something of a project for her, when she could, she'd plunk me down at her dressing table and fix my hair paint my face and tell me how pretty I could be, if I would just take some time with myself.

I think, eventually, Beatrix got tired of it, but mostly tired of us. When Father finally told her he just could not borrow any more money and that she would have to cut back on her luxuries, no more smart frocks and fur trimmed suits. No more trips to the milliners. Beatrix went to a theater friend of hers and got a role in an operetta.
She was never home after that, choosing instead to entertain her friends at the theater. But somehow she still managed to spend more than her role brought in.
One day in early winter, it was raining, what would soon become snow, I came home early from school, I had forgotten my lunch, and I found her dressed in her best suit, a new hat on head. She seemed nervous when she saw me and fidgeted as she spoke to me. I hadn't long to speak to her, But I saw from the front window a taxi arrive and she got in, hesitating as she looked up at the house, then she turned her back and got into the cab and was gone.

Father did not take the news well, though, he didn't say what upset him so. I think he knew then, that Beatrix was never coming home. I knew at that point that things were bad, but it would be right in the heart of winter before I knew how bad things had become.