Cirrus@Austlit

Set in Paris, the story of a woman abandoned by the father of her child who gives the baby to the foundling hospital. Thirty years later, after living lower each year, she returns to the hospital to discover what happened to her - and dies in the arms of the nun she became. Plain tale; mother is not condemned despite her 'weaknesses'. (PB)

Romance of country Victoria. A city visitor to the house Clara Rankine and her Scottish mother is suspected of being mad - so Clara's loathed fiancee and another man are asked to stay for protection. Occasional irony eg. Clara's greater refinement than her crude Scottish relations due to her years at a Melbourne boarding school, her lover's repulsiveness etc. Also broader humour as when all but Clara are convinced the visitor is mad and attempt to remove her from the room ... One engagement is broken that evening ... Entertainingly well written; light. (PB)

A young married couple's quarrel stems from a misunderstanding - but all is eventually cleared up through an old maid's gossiping intervention. Slight. (PB)

A dying mother's wish for her son never to drink saves Crawford from intemperance. Sentimental and pious. (PB)

Story of a Jewish father and son and their attempts to retain control of the old man's fortune bequeathed to his son on what he believed was his deathbed. The older man's sagacity proves to be greater. Slight. (PB)

A mother's love for her short-lived baby lasts all her life, even through the birth of other children. Pathos. (PB)

Domestic. Mr Smith undertakes he can bake a cake better than his wife, and like his mother. His ruse to exchange it for a baker's cake is exposed. Humour. (PB)

A US frontier is eager to kill Big Jim when he kills his third man, but an Indian attack on a traveller's camp proves he is neither bully nor coward. Slight. (PB)

An English doctor agrees to replace a friend in his Victorian practice for 6 months. On the ship out he notices a reticent fellow passenger and finds her living with her son not far from his destination. Another neighbour has been associated with the brutal poisoning of a beautiful actress he loved by another actress and rival, and the English doctor becomes his confidante. In agreeing to sell a ring secretly in Melbourne he finds himself also associated with the poisoning - and the son becomes a daughter ... (PB)

A rough crossing of Lake Michigan leaves passengers topsy turvy and seasick. Humour. (PB)

Description of a thief's punishment by a band of hooded horsemen. (Reminiscent of Ku Klux Klan. Is this text modelled on events in the US south? Tone of sketch is almost approving.) (PB)