AustLit

A windfall and resultant guilt. The discovery of a lost purse in the street fills the pair who find it with such guilt that they rue the day they spend its contents. Only discovering the owner prevents suicide ... (PB)

A doctor's prescription cures a negro patient - not by being filled but being itself immersed in a tumbler of water and regularly taken. (PB)

Romance of a genial bachelor, a former major, unable to forget a beautiful young woman met on a train to Chicago years before who killed herself overnight. He is haunted by her memory. (PB)

Romance set in Germany ca. 1870. The betrothal of a young woman prompts her aged unmarried aunt to recall her own engagement to his grandfather in 1815 broken through his faithlessness. They become friends again during a last illness. (PB)

A woman marries the suitor least inclined to work and suffers poverty. Driven by his need for money he kills a stranger who had sought shelter in their house, stealing his money. He discovers too late that the gold was in fact meant for him as a reward for saving a nobleman's life, clears his rival who had been accused of the crime, and commits suicide. (PB)

A bachelor's encounter with a friend's baby. (PB)

Tragic romance of chance street acquaintances. The narrator learns of the betrayal of a plain dressmaker by her pretty friend and her fiancee who run away together. The abandoned girl commits suicide. (PB)

Shooting of a South African black miner attempting to steal a valuable diamond from a De Beers company mine. (PB)

Racing tale. A bet's good reputation and a horse poisoning are cleverly combined to make a fortune from stacked betting. (PB)

Ghost tale of a Dorsetshire mansion narrated by a Dublin solicitor and his wife. Their children were the first to see her. (PB)

Literary humour. A newspaper editor physically punishes his office boy for a misdemeanour and is suitably punished. The boy no longer protects him from visits by aspiring writers and he must deal with an aspiring poet, a feminist old maid, a raging Irishman, and a sentimental young lady before he sees the error of his ways. (PB)

A newspaper editor agrees to publish a poet's work - but tells him to pay the business editors first. (PB)

A clever ploy by a US whaling captain to kidnap black people into slavery from the British colony of Natal. The captain pretends he needs help pumping water out of his ship. Subject interesting, especially British response. (PB)

An English racehorse's chances are ruined when her mother deliberately kicks her. After that her fortunes fall until she pulls a hansom-cab. She takes a fever and imagines herself winning the Epsom Oaks - but has died by morning. (PB)

Courtship by rival impecunious bachelors for a middle-aged widow. A cunning trick by his businessman rival deprives the artist of his success. (PB)

Romance/detective tale. A rejected suitor takes advantage of his rival's quarrel with his uncle to murder the old man. He persuades the rival to plead guilty through a false letter purportedly from his sweetheart claiming that she had murdered the uncle in a fit of passion. A clever detective discovers the truth ... (PB)

Racing tale. A British nobleman's dodgy racing ploys. (PB)

A Melbourne doctor is poisoned by his deformed son who goes mad, his young wife runs off with a bank clerk and only his daughter remains true. Includes faithful family servant. Narrated through notes of another doctor, an old friend, and an unofficial detective called in. Brief note by Sinclair ends the tale. (PB)

Description of Derby Day, recounting a beautiful walk to Epsom, the terrible crowd behaviour of some ruffians on the day, and the theft of a watch - which was worthless. The race itself is not the focus, but the crowds and the scene etc. (PB)