AustLit

Slight detective tale set in England. A parson and two members of his poor East London parish on a canoe trip up the Thames request permission to camp on a private island. A robbery is discovered later, and only slowly traced to their false appearances. (PB)

In Paris during the days of the Second Empire, a Russian Countess is robbed of two diamond ear-rings by ingenious imposters. Light. (PB)

A married couple test the motive of the relatives coming to visit them by moving into an old holiday shack by the lake for a few days. Light; entertaining. (PB)

Mark S___, a private detective, is hired in the 70s to discover the mystery of a Presbyterian minister's wife's visits to Melbourne from their country home, as she becomes increasingly mad. Supposedly visiting her son's grave, she in fact visits him, a buglar hiding from the police who also believe him dead. A coarse simpering cousin and a criminal groom also involves themselves in the tale. (PB)

Domestic tale. Frank Ivan suggests to his wife that she should give up reading and being a 'blue' to become a fashionable society woman. She defers to his wishes for six months, changing their home utterly, having little time for him or the children, until he buys her a book himself and she happily returns to her old ways. Light satire. ('Blue' is carefully distinguished from a woman's rightist). (PB)

Humorous anecdote concerning a Sunderland shipowner's mistake about Gladstone's identity. (PB)

A boy's account of a practical joke he played on his preacher father and a visiting minister, making each believe the other was deaf. (PB)

On the formation of a mining speculator from an easily-swayed family man who at first gains some success from mining shares but loses it through dunkenness and over-confidence. Sadly moral sketch. (PB)

Portrait of the ideal most girl grow up with, and the real honest man who should be loved. General moral tone. (PB)

The disappearance of an opal and diamond ear-ring - a wedding gift - ruptures an acquaintance between the Carnegie's and the Consols. When Mrs Carnegie later discovers it caught in her cloak she panics and her silence and a jeweller's cleverness eventually return it to its owner - at a stiff price. Slight; intricate scheming. (PB)

An incorrigibly defaulting English soldier is transformed by mercy where punishment failed. (PB)

English light romance of the bored aristocracy. Lady Ermendgarde Beaumonde assumes the role of governess to a very low-toned nouveau riche family. There she meets in her ugly bonnet and green-tinted glasses Sir Marmadule Dorsay who courts her in the guise of a new doctor's assistance, Mr. Killem. All is ultimately and amusingly resolved and revealed. Part social satire, part romance. (PB)

Account of a man's experience of being pinioned and nearly strangled - by his own cat and coat. (PB)

A domestic tiff over apple sauce in Dakota, USA. Humour, with the wife holding the gun. (PB)

US tale. A step-daughter learns her young step-mother's true worth when she engages herself to an English lord - who is in fact her step-mother's brother and a villain. Slight. (PB)

On the Irish proclivity to fight when coolness is necessary; and a misunderstanding leading to a duel between an Irish and a British officer. (PB)