English novelist, born at Hampstead, on the 24th of January 1864; educated at Dresden schools and in English colleges; graduated B.A. in classics and mathematics at the University of London. She belongs to a musical and artistic family, and early showed a disposition toward literature. After writing some short stories, chiefly for children, she was fortunate in appearing in Blackwood’s. Her first book, Things Will Take a Turn (1891), was for children. Her next, Ships that Pass in the Night (1893), was partly autobiographical, and secured immediate attention. Her In Varying Moods (1894) is a collection of stories including At the Green Dragon; The Painter and His Picture; The Umbrella-Mender; A Bird of Passage; The Clockmaker and His Wife; Sorrow and Joy; and An Idyll of London. She lived in California for two years on account of her health, and wrote The Remittance-Man, dealing with an American subject, and other stories. Her recent works are Hilda Strafford (1897); Untold Tales of the Past (for children, 1897); and The Fowler (1899).
