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. II. 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. CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME. BOOK III. UNDER SUSPICION.--CONTINUED. IX. THE CLOUDS THICKEN X. MATTIE IN SEARCH XI. EXPLANATIONS XII. A SHORT WARNING XIII. LEAVE-TAKINGS BOOK IV. "WANT PLACES." I. ONE AND TWENTY II. SIDNEY'S CONFESSION III. A FLYING VISIT TO NUMBER THIRTY-FOUR IV. HIS TURN V. THE NEW BERTH BOOK V. STORM SIGNALS. I. CAST DOWN II. IN WHICH SEVERAL DISCOVERIES COME TOGETHER III. FATHER AND DAUGHTER IV. ONLY PITY V. AN UNAVAILING EFFORT VI. MR. GRAY FURTHER DEVELOPED VII. A DINNER PARTY VIII. MATTIE'S CONFESSION BOOK III. CONTINUED. UNDER SUSPICION. CHAPTER IX. THE CLOUDS THICKEN. Mattie had fully anticipated a visit from Mr. Wesden on the day following Sidney Hinchford's departure, but the master appeared not at the little shop in Great Suffolk Street. It was not till the following day that he arrived--at six in the morning, as the boy was taking down the shutters. Mattie's heart began beating painfully fast; she had become very nervous concerning Mr. Wesden, and his thoughts of her. Appearances had been against her of late, and he was a man who did not think so charitably as he acted sometimes. He gave a gruff good morning, and came behind the counter. "You can do what you like to-day," he said. "I'll mind the shop." "Very well, sir. I--I suppose," she added, hastily, "Miss Harriet has told you what happened the day before yesterday?" "I know all about it. I don't want to talk about it." "But I do, sir!" Mr. Wesden stared over Mattie's head after his old fashion. His will had been law so long, that disputing it rather took him aback. "I know that these losses put you out, Mr. Wesden," said Mattie, firmly; "that they are due to my own carelessness--to having been taken off my guard after all my watch here, all my interest in everything connected with the business. I dream of the shop,--I would not neglect it for the world,--and it _is_ hard to be so unfortunate as I have been. Mr. Wesden, you wouldn't let me repay back the money which was taken away from the house; but I must pay the value of that parcel stolen from before my very eyes."