Chapter I: Front Matter

SUE A LITTLE HEROINE

by

L. T. MEADE

Author of "A Girl from America," "The Princess of the Revels," "Polly, a New-Fashioned Girl," "A Sweet Girl Graduate," etc.

New York The New York Book Company 1910

BIOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

L. T. Meade (Mrs. Elizabeth Thomasina Smith), English novelist, was born at Bandon, County Cork, Ireland, 1854, the daughter of Rev. R. T. Meade, Rector of Novohal, County Cork, and married Toulmin Smith in 1879. She wrote her first book, _Lettie's Last Home_, at the age of seventeen and since then has been an unusually prolific writer, her stories attaining wide popularity on both sides of the Atlantic.

She worked in the British Museum, living in Bishopsgate Without, making special studies of East London life which she incorporated in her stories. She edited _Atlanta_ for six years. Her pictures of girls, especially in the influence they exert on their elders, are drawn with intuitive fidelity; pathos, love, and humor, as in _Daddy's Girl_, flowing easily from her pen. She has traveled extensively, being devoted to motoring and other outdoor sports.

Among more than fifty novels she has written, dealing largely with questions of home life, are: _David's Little Lad_; _Great St. Benedict's_; _A Knight of To-day_ (1877); _Miss Toosey's Mission_; _Bel-Marjory_ (1878); _Laddie; Outcast Robbin, or, Your Brother and Mine_; _A Cry from the Great City_; _White Lillie and Other Tales_; _Scamp and I_; _The Floating Light of Ringfinnan_; _Dot and Her Treasures_; _The Children's Kingdom: the Story of Great Endeavor_; _The Water Gipsies_; _A Dweller in Tents_; _Andrew Harvey's Wife_; _Mou-setse: A Negro Hero_ (1880); _Mother Herring's Chickens_ (1881); _A London Baby: the Story of King Roy_ (1883); _Hermie's Rose-Buds and Other Stories_; _How it all Came Round_; _Two Sisters_ (1884); _Autocrat of the Nursery_; _Tip Cat_; _Scarlet Anemones_; _The Band of Three_; _A Little Silver Trumpet_; _Our Little Ann_; _The Angel of Love_ (1885); _A World of Girls_ (1886); _Beforehand_; _Daddy's Boy_; _The O'Donnells of Inchfawn_; _The Palace Beautiful_; _Sweet Nancy_ (1887); _Deb and the Duchess_ (1888); _Nobody's Neighbors_; _Pen_ (1888); _A Girl from America_ (1907).

CONTENTS

I. BIG BEN'S VOICE. 1
II. A SERVANT OF GOD. 3
III. GOOD SECURITY. 7
IV. SOLITARY HOURS. 9
V. EAGER WORDS. 10
VI. DIFFERENT SORT OF WORK. 12
VII. SHOPPING. 21
VIII. COMPARISONS. 26
IX. A TRIP INTO THE COUNTRY. 31
X. THE RETURN TO LONDON. 35
XI. A NEW DEPARTURE. 44
XII. LEFT ALONE. 48
XIII. PETER HARRIS. 60
XIV. THE SEARCH. 66
XV. CONCENTRATION OF PURPOSE. 69
XVI. PICKLES. 74
XVII. CINDERELLA. 78
XVIII. THE METROPOLITAN FIRE BRIGADE. 79
XIX. A SAINTLY LADY. 83
XX. CAUGHT AGAIN. 87
XXI. SAFE HOME AT LAST. 94
XXII. NEWS OF SUE. 105
XXIII. AMATEUR DETECTIVE. 109
XXIV. MOTHER AND SON. 112
XXV. ABOUT RONALD. 113
XXVI. TWO CUPS OF COFFEE. 124
XXVII. DELAYED TRIAL. 127
XXVIII. CINDERELLA WOULD SHIELD THE REAL THIEF. 130
XXIX. A LITTLE HEROINE. 132
XXX. WHAT WAS HARRIS TO HER? 134
XXXI. A STERN RESOLVE. 136
XXXII. AN UNEXPECTED ACCIDENT. 137
XXXIII. A POINTED QUESTION. 138
XXXIV. PICKLES TO THE FORE AGAIN. 141
XXXV. THE WINGS ARE GROWING. 142
XXXVI. A CRISIS. 143
XXXVII. THE HAPPY GATHERING. 151

SUE: A LITTLE HEROINE.