Sisters Lucy and Peggy Webling acted professionally at early ages, and their dramatic presentations brought them into contact with famous figures of the late nineteenth-century literary, artistic, and political world. As young adults they published a book together that included poems by Lucy and short stories by Peggy. Lucy continued her acting career and eventually wrote two novels. Peggy, by far the more prolific of the two, turned her full attention to writing and produced several novels, an autobiography, essays, another volume of poetry, adaptations for the stage, and a series of news articles and short stories for a variety of London publications.

Peggy was born on 1 January 1871 and Lucy on 30 August 1877 to Robert James and Maria Webling. They had four older sisters. Lucy and Peggy spent most of their childhood near Kensington Gardens, London, in a house in Wellington Terrace, where their father also kept a jewelry...