AustLit

US domestic tale of a wandering child found. A father returning from market with the doll bought for his young daughter hears a child crying in the darkness and searches for it. Finally finding the child he takes it home, only to discover it is his own daughter ... Warm, sentimental. (PB)

An English squire's horse trainer recounts the attempt of the squire's enemies to prevent his horse from winning a steeplechase and clearing his debts by bribing his jockey not to appear. The squire foils the attempt by rising from his sickbed to ride it himself. Practical man's tale of racing and honour. (PB)

Tale of lost family gold, a murdered parent and romance. The discovery of a cryptogram in the pocket of a fleeing thief enables a brother and sister to locate their vanished father's gold - and his skeleton. And it enables the hero to marry the neighbouring heiress he loves; much space devoted to the cryptogram solution. (PB).

Comic tale of an English bridegroom who, desiring to keep his identity and marriage secret from a gossiping friend, takes a hotel room under a false name. He is woken in the middle of the night and charged with forgery, from which only the gossip can save him. Slight. (PB)

Tale of the fatal fall of a tight-rope walker and a reformed alcoholic shanty house keeper from a rope across a ravine on a California gold fields. Describes much of the character of the former shanty keeper and of the Rocky Mountains diggings. (PB)

Anecdote of a practical joke played by the actor, Sothern, on a hardware store attendant.

Slight romance of a rich ward persecuted by her guardian's son who wishes to marry her wealth; the two cousins and aunt who try to shelter her; and the return of her husband - an army officer secretly married - from India. A baby rounds off the tale. Thinly realised. (PB)

Poorly realised tale of a young woman's attempts to gain back a suitor from a lady employed as a servant in her house by falsely accusing her of robbery and attempting to persuade her to suicide. Discovered by a detective and her former suitor, she commits suicide herself. (PB)

Slight romance. The rescue of a rose from a muddy Broadway initiates love between a junior partner in a law firm and the shy cousin of the vivacious banker's daughter his uncle wishes him to marry. Following his heart he also gains her riches - for she too is an heiress. Insubstantial. (PB)

Domestic tale. A wife's attempt to rescue a fine bottle of sauterne from the bag of a departing cook is found to have failed ... Marital humour. (PB)

Romance blossoms when a teacher driven by ill-health to spend the summer with a married friend in the country, meets a bachelor friend of the family. But first they must establish that she was innocent of 'flirting' with him through a note left on a street-car. Slight; rests on observation of code of etiquette in public places. (PB)

Practical joke played on a retired army captain and a mining-engineer, both drinking water in the belief the other was drinking fine wine ... (PB)

Light tale of an honest but useless British gentleman in Melbourne society who finds himself broke - but with the help of his dog and an auctioneer friend turns his luck in Marvellous Melbourne's land speculations. Cheerful. (PB)

A widow's disinheritance of her son for marrying against her will leads to her ultimate death of heart attack when he returns - drunk - to destroy it. A poor neighbour planning to rob her is reformed by the sight of her dead body. And plain Mary her daughter finds support and finally marriage from their good-hearted Irish farmahnd. (PB)

Confidence trick by an apparently aristocratic Englishman in Paris who has two pairs of boots made and leaves the city with one of each. (PB)

Domestic tale. A wife's jealousy of her husband is finally vanquished when she tracks him down to a hotel and accuses him of infidelity - with her own mother. Thinly realised. (PB)

Set near Vendome on the Loire. A beautiful countess is cunningly punished by her husband who has her swear on her crucifix that no-one is in her closet and then has it walled up while she and he remain in the room. Narrated years later by a traveller. Engrossing; tension well-sustained. (PB)

Tale of a father's fierce love for his daughter and the tragedy it creates: a violinist robs a generous young man of £1000 belonging to his office in order to prevent his unfaithful wife from revealing her identity and history to his beloved daughter. When he discovers she loves the young man whose reputation he has thus ruined, the father confesses his own guilt and suffers a mental collapse ... Competently written with a touch of melodrama. (PB)

A US attourney's advice frees his client of a charge of larceny through a plea of insanity - but also leaves his bill unpaid. Humour. (PB)