McGuire recounted how she was born to rich parents but her father drank, and died young. Her mother also died while she was a girl, and she went to live with a second cousin of her mother's, a watchmaker, who turned out to want favours in return for his "kindness".

She fought him off and escaped, but as you may guess, this is just the first of a series of such encounters. Men offer her work or accommodation but there is always an expected quid pro quo. Then she has an idea, and goes to a barber who buys women's hair, asking him to cut it very close.