Cirrus@Austlit

Moral tale on the desirability of forgiving friends quickly. Based around a widow, her brother, and the refusal of a neighbour to lend his team of horses. Sententious. (PB)

On Queen Matilda of England and her marvellous escapes from her enemies. (PB)

Set in early 19th Century England, a nephew persuades his uncle to consent to his marriage by a ruse. (PB)

The Countess of Moray, Scotland, recounts the tale of a Halloween from her youth to her grand-daughters. Three young noblewomen use the old Scottish traditions to discover who would be their husbands - and sadly influence their lives forever. (PB)

A fiancee's fears of her potential mother-in-law prove to be groundless. Really an essay on the topic in dramatic form. (PB)

Humorous tale of Prince Stuffwell who marries plain Midge Chilliwilli for her apple pudding. (PB)

Maud Chalmer's pride prevents her accepting Everard Tennant's explanation of a private conversation with his previous finacee - and Maud loses him. (PB)

A broken engagement in an English village is restored two years later. The heartsore clergyman is injured attempting to rescue his lover from a fire, and she nurses him in the guise of a Japanese servant. (PB)

A mysterious and beautiful singer at a country concert near Myrniong, Victoria, enslaves three of the four literary and artistic protagonists. But the fourth, a French artist, recognises her as the murdress of his brother in Paris. Tone swings from masculine literary mateship to melodramatic adventure. (PB)

Tragic tale of a French journalist who meets and loves a girl the night before she enters the convent, and sees her again years later on the Paris stage. His life is wasted seeking her love ... PB)

Village spinsters are annoyed when their minister becomes engaged to a woman from the neighbouring parish. An an old stigma is removed. (PB)

Romance begun in a railway carriage and carried through - with the assistance of friends - in Melbourne. Wry narrative style. (PB)

German historical romance. A humble cottage maiden sees her love victorious at the duke's festival and - imagining him in love with the Lady Idessa - takes herself to the Loeder-Lachen contemplating suicide. Includes the legend of the lake. Stilted though slight narrative interest in changing perspective of heroine. (PB)

Set on the Camden plains in pioneering settlement days, an old hermit's murderous revenge on the father or pretty, vain Lydia Hermon who had seduced his own daughter years before. Includes parallel account of a boy's initiation to manhood. (PB)

A wife subverts her husband's refusal to allow her to smuggle lace across the Canadian border - with a clever needle and a stuffed poodle. (PB)