The eldest daughter of the American Clement Dodge, a wealthy, absent-minded inventor, Vertiline was raised by a weak-willed but socially-ambitious mother (Mary) in a house full of broken inventions and odd tools. Her mother is a British woman of good family who moved to America upon her marriage. Verdie’s earliest playthings had cranks and hinges, and she learned to use tools as extensions of her own hands. As she grew older, her shyness and apparent stupidity made her an easy target of neighborhood bullies; she endured the abuse with stubborn ignorance, until she was set upon and defended herself with her fists. Her younger, sweet-natured sister, Adelaide, pretty and more socially adept, tried to defend her and made the locals ignore her, and Verdie is wordlessly devoted to her.