Produced by Louise Davies, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.) MATTIE:--A STRAY. BY F. W. ROBINSON THE AUTHOR OF "HIGH CHURCH," "NO CHURCH," "OWEN:-A WAIF," &c., &c. "By bestowing blessings upon others, we entail them on ourselves." HORACE SMITH. IN THREE VOLUMES VOL. I. LONDON: HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, SUCCESSORS TO HENRY COLBURN, 18, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1864. _The right of Translation is reserved._ LONDON: PRINTED BY MACDONALD AND TUGWELL, BLENHEIM HOUSE, BLENHEIM STREET, OXFORD STREET. INSCRIBED TO ALFRED EAMES, ESQ., ROYAL NAVAL SCHOOL, NEW CROSS, BY HIS OLD AND ATTACHED FRIEND THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. BOOK I. FIGURES IN OUTLINE. I. LIFE IN GREAT SUFFOLK STREET II. MATTIE III. LODGERS IV. MR. HINCHFORD'S EXPERIMENT V. SET UP IN BUSINESS VI. THE END OF THE PROLOGUE BOOK II. THE NEW ESTATE. I. HOME FOR GOOD II. A GIRL'S ROMANCE III. OUR CHARACTERS IV. A NEW ADMIRER V. PERSEVERANCE VI. "IN THE FULNESS OF THE HEART," ETC. VII. CONFIDENCE VIII. SIDNEY STATES HIS INTENTIONS BOOK III. UNDER SUSPICION. I. AN OLD FRIEND II. STRANGE VISITORS TO GREAT SUFFOLK STREET III. SIDNEY'S SUGGESTION IV. PERPLEXITY V. MR. WESDEN TURNS ECCENTRIC VI. A BURST OF CONFIDENCE VII. THE PLAN FRUSTRATED VIII. A SUDDEN JOURNEY MATTIE: A STRAY. BOOK I. FIGURES IN OUTLINE. CHAPTER I. LIFE IN GREAT SUFFOLK STREET. It was not an evening party of the first water, or given by people of first-rate position in society, or held in a quarter whither the fashionable classes most do congregate. It was a small party--ostensibly a juvenile party--held on the first floor of a stationer's shop in Great Suffolk Street, Southwark.