Cirrus@Austlit

Christian death of the great US soldier. (PB)

Horrific encounter with escaped madman in a London railway carriage crossing London Bridge to New Cross. His mania is for travelling to the moon. (PB)

A Maine farmer's story of his wife's clever ruse to save him from drink and remove the mortgage from their farm. Sentimental. (PB)

Exotic romance set near Salem Massachusetts. A traveller settled in the region for five years witnesses the death of a mysterious Cuban sailor, the tenant of a dilapidated cottage on his estate. He hears of a Cuban nobleman murdered shortly before his escape to the USA years before, and then receives another tenant for his cottage - a beautiful half Cuban half English girl with whom he falls in love. She is revealed as the noble Cuban's daughter seeking to recover her father's treausure from the two servants who murdered him - one, the dead tenant of the cottage and another who tries to murder her once she finds the treasure ... (The romance is assisted by a mysterious force that the narrator feels from the touch of her hands). Well crafted; light. (PB)

Tale of a young French nobleman whose father, a valiant officer of Napoleon I, plays a card game with his son who was becoming known as a card cheat in Paris. The stake - their lives and honours. (PB)

Satirical description of the horrors of inspecting family photo albums at the first social call on a new acquaintance. (PB)

Irish romance conducted in England. Norah Kavanagh, Irish governess in an English country household, falls in love with and marries a visiting Irish gentleman, Dermot Connor. Only after their wedding and return to Ireland does she discover he is her cousin whose return from Australia to claim his title speeded her father's death ... Pleasantly written. (PB)

A sailor falls from the mast and is drowned during a storm on Lake Michigan near Lexington. Impressionistic sketch of an anonymous death.

Berrima station returns to its Aboriginal owner, Sharp John, King of the Berrimas, when Helen Rhodes' father dies without a son. Helen, near 40, leaves the station and finds employment as nurse to an oorphan Lilla with Mr Brown of a station on the Murray, whom she subsequently marries Emma Rhodes, whom Sharp John had loved, marries their neighbour Mark Blake but he is nearly ruined when he does not gain Berrima station he leaves with his wife and later deserts her. Sharp John buys Blake's property too and when he dies leaves it to his nephew, and Berrima station to Helen Rhodes. The nephew, last of his tribe, decides to join his people in Queensland when Emma returns and dies, leaving his property to Helen's step-daughter. Verdict: "the last kings of the Berrimas have proved themselves more generous and self-sacrificing than many kings who sit on thrones ... ' [The Aboriginal characters have been educated as white men, and are landed proprietors, but pine for their people and the outdoor life.] (PB)

Exemplary sketch; an American woman travelling from Albany to New York by train is affectedly exclusive until recognised by a home-spun farmer who recalls her poverty-stricken childhood. (PB)

Humorous tale of two fashionable fops who propose a meeting to two beauties on the stage - and are taught a lesson by their Grenadier Guardmen brothers. Light. (PB)

A preacher hears an everyday interchange between a married couple before they become aware of his presence and their style changes. Humour. (PB)

The mysterious assassination of Custer's pickets in the Shenandoah Valley by unseen hands. Evocative impressionistic style; competent only. (PB)

Reformation of a spoiled girl's character begins when her mother, long widowed, remarries and her husband turns her out into the world to learn manners. She falls in love with and marries her step-father's groom, masquerading as Sir George Lirradale to protect her at her London lodging-house, and a year's marriage and a baby cure her of ill-manners and her pretentiousness. Light; happy tone for W. W. (PB)