AustLit

Light English romance. Vincent Bouchier returns from service in the Indian army to find the woman he loved ten years before a widow - Rosalie Ormskirk. She married first for money and is tempted by a nobleman's proposal - until she and Vincent are trapped in a lift on the way to her suite ... (PB)

A Mason's wife gives away the secrets of a ladies' only society while swearing not to. Humour (smug, husbandly kind.) (PB)

Reminiscence of the Victorian gold diggings near Ballarat in the 1850s. An English gentleman makes a fourth partner with three diggers, and he and Quiet Jack the narrator become close friends. Jack hears of his friend's love for a woman who spurned him for his brother and the family title - and witnesses his death along with his brother's during a tour of their mineshaft by English visitors. Lady Ailsworth loses all she has bartered for. Pious tone in parts, very unlike Wander's usual sentiments - or at last much stronger. (PB)

Through a snow storm a child struggles on to die clasping its mother's grave. (PB)

Ironic English romance. A refusal to allow Edgar Fawcett, a newly commissioned Indian officer, to marry Elizabeth Fleming causes the lovers a year's unhappiness and separation. When Fawcett returns to England with a young wife eleven years later he discovers Elizabeth a comfortable matron and her father's wisdom justified. (PB)

Tale of the successful impudence of a failed London commission agent who saves himself from bankruptcy by pretending to be connected with the lord of the village in which he was staying. At desperation point he accompanies the family lawyer to the estate and by allowing each to assume he knows the other, gains the position of steward ... Slight; good humoured. (PB)

A New York detective goes to Detroit to investigate a murder, discovers it was a jealous husband, and marries the since deceased murderer's widow. Light bachelor tale. (PB)

An American's manner of telling his friend's wife that her father has died in St Louis! Humour. (PB)

Comments on the oddity of Christian names exchanged between a US clergyman and reporter. (PB)

Anecdote of Mark Twain in Buffalo, and his slow neighbourly way of telling a family their roof was on fire. (PB)

A hurricane sweeps across the American prairie, completely breaking up a wagon train camp. Forceful. (PB)

A traveller's nightmare. A sick traveller visits a medical student friend in another city and after hearing a conversation among other students dreams that he appears to have died and is to be dissected while still alive. Slight. (PB)

Exemplary piece of a nursemaid scared by her mistress in the same way she scared her young charge into sleep. (PB)

Romance of London society in 1879. A Scottish nobleman's widow re-enters society when she discovers the love her youth has returned from ten years service in India. The silence and self-sacrifice of youth is not allowed to destroy their second chance. Light, calm. (PB)

A youth's manipulative old mother opposes his marriage to the daughter of a neighbouring farmer and she seems correct when the girl proves false and wishes to marry a handsome wealthy man visiting the township. The son becomes very ill, believing all women - including his mother - false, and the mother's plan of revenge grows until its murderous conclusion is reached ... The daughter is deserted by her new lover and punished by all. (PB)