AustLit

A father who had spurned his daughter for marrying against his wishes is contrite and seeks her out with her sick child and they are reunited. Brief; religious theme. (PB)

Neighbouring houses, one rich one poor, are both made happy when the birth of twins and a doctor's hint causes them to share respective riches. Moral tone but avoids over-sentimentality. Northern hemisphere setting (snow, etc). (PB)

A practical joke played on an Australian ('Kangaroo') at Brazenface College, Oxford in 1880 introduces him to Lilian West and romance blossoms from a fictitious matrimonial advertisement. Pleasant. (PB)

A scientific association member in London hears a lecture from an intrepid army captain on his balloon journey to the Orkneys. He has a drink with the lecturer and they embark on a flight to France in the morning - concluding with his ejection from the balloon to lighten the ballast. It is of course a dream! Oddly airy humour; low-key. (Linguistic suggestions of a sexual attraction between the men.) (PB)

A circumlocutory Irish explanation of a horse-theft and consequent hanging. (PB)

Delightful tale of a German girl's kindness to dwarves on Christmas Eve when she is searching for wood for her grandparents' fire. She takes twin dwarf babies to church to be baptised and is rewarded richly. (PB)

A bachelor recounts a journey from France to London and his rapid infatuation with his ingenuously beautiful travelling companion - broken only when he discovers she has stolen his wallet. Ironically self-deprecating tale, slight but wryly told. (PB)

Rich Miss Eleanor Slinglander scorns the Christmas present sent to her by her swain and despatches it to her sewing girl - once wealthy but now fallen on hard times. It contains an offer of marriage which the girl - Ella - accepts and the suitor decides he has the best bargain after all. Light; unlikely. (PB)

A US trapper rescues an infant from a wagon train sacked by Indians and raises him as his son. Sixteen years later the boy's mother accidentally meets him on a trip mean his ranch and they are reunited. Slight father/mother - nurturer/blood ties - both valued. (PB)

Romance of middle-age. A successful businessman returns to the city of his youth to discover the woman he loved has not married another as he thought but has loved him all the time ... Pleasant though full of womanly virtues, 'unspoken pain and smothered passion'. (PB)

Anecdote of Javers I and his different reception by vicar and curate at a country inn to share their lunch. (PB)

A scheming governess is to marry her widowed employer until his sister discovers the plot and through her fiancee, a solicitor, reveals that the governess is already married. Her husband warns her and she plays her last card. (PB)

A salon of literary and artistic women from Great Britain and the US forms in Rome and decide to grant a prize to the most and least handsome man of their acquaintance. A US journalist is given the booby prize but receives it so chivalrously that he eventually wins the fair heiress who presents it to him. Pleasant; international setting for reasonably conventional romance. Group of women but still centred on men ... (PB)

A grandfather dies on Christmas Eve surrounded with memories of his family and especially his son killed on the battlefield. Pathos and peace combined. Slight. (PB)

Practical joke played by the French painter Meissonier on his gardener is repaid in kind. Humour. (PB)

Tale of heroism from the Belgian coast. A fisherman's wife and a young priest are the only persons willing to put to sea during a terrible storm on 10th October 1843 to rescue the crew of a sinking vessell. The wife is truly rewarded when - unbeknownst to her - her husband and brother are included. (PB)

A man is strongly punished by his younger brother during a boxing match arranged for exercise. (PB)

A young nervous bride is brought home to a haunted house which her husband rented cheaply. He refuses to take her away when she discovers it, and she eventually dies from a fall into the cellar. Slight. Overtones of husband's brutal insensitivity. (PB)

A German shepherd boy's honesty, trust and fidelity to his master win the Grand Duke's admiration, and are rewarded. Brief. (PB)

An English lawyer returning from a holiday in France without much money befriends a young Frenchwoman journeying to England to be a governess on the channel steamer, and after various delays, a missed train etc., proposes. Lack of money embarrasses them only briefly. (PB)