Cirrus@Austlit

Mrs Lyle, jealous of the love letters sent to her actor-husband decides to test his fidelity by sending one of her own - and is suitably repaid. Humour. (PB)

Account of an encounter between Dickens and a clergyman traducing Dickens' character in a London railway carriage. (PB)

Jeweller's dicussion on the origin of the numerical roman symbol IIII on watch and clock faces. Tradition from Charles V of France. Dialogue form. (PB)

A lawyer's son repays his father's youthful crime of retaining funds left in trust for another - and falls in love with the beneficiary. She is a governess who uses her money in part to assist other ill and needy governesses. (PB)

On Napoleon's rejection as a poor rough young officer by a 60 year-old French widow. (PB)

Australian bush tale of the abduction and rape of the newly married daughter of an honest old couple, discovered gagged and tied to a gum tree by her husband who kisses her passionately then kills her. He follows her rapist, near strangles him, throws him over a precipice, and falls over himself in eluding pursuers. He has gone mad. Strong elements of victim's stain. (PB)

Tale of self-sacrifice as a young woman sacrifices her own love to nurse her invalid mother. Reward in the hereafter. (PB)

Tale of romance and insanity. A young man is rescued from death in a sea cave by the daughter of a mental specialist. He has no will or memory and Daisy Dalkeith's father decides to cure him - the pair fall in love meanwhile. Dr Dalkeith tries to distract his daughter by a visit to her aunt's but when all three are there the patient sees his would-be murderer and recovers his memory ... Diagnosis of 'madness' very loose. Includes dramatic final scene. (PB)

Very brief sketch-like romance of middle-age. An advertisement for a housekeeper reunites former lovers ... and time has changed little though he is widowed. (PB)

Various encounters between an Englishman newly arrived in the US and a helpful stranger; concluding with a meeting in a Mississippi gaol where the American is on his way to be hung. (PB)

English jeweller's tale of a clever confidence trick played by an apparent gentleman and a purported detective which left him at the police station minus money and jewellery - competent tale. (PB)

A discontented telegraph office boy hears a tale from the office pen of his own slow rise, and that of the senior clerk in the office - Exemplary tale: to do the best in whatever position you occupy ... (PB)

Tale of self sacrifice. An escaped galley prisoner from Toulouse allows himself to be given up to the police that his capturer may gain the reward for his family. He is rewarded with a pardon. (PB)

Legend of Michaelangelo's generosity in 1520 when he gives a sketch of a hand to a poor gondalier that he may win the daughter of an avaricious inn-keeper. (PB)

A doctor recalls the tragedy of a young man's death of 'heart disease' and rereads the manuscript in which the destruction of the man's marriage through his jealousy and his wife's gambling is recounted. (PB)

Account of a poor chimney-sweep's ascent of the precipitous rock protecting a fortress in Germany. (PB)

A German hawker is murdered by a shanty keeper in Victorian ranges. The hawker's carriage is let loose to distract suspicion but an ugly clever serving girl guesses his secret and helps him to escape through a false suicide in return for the shanty deeds. She falls low in Melbourne, subsequently. A man of all work, the local policeman, and a Melbourne detective surprise a 'ghost' and capture their man. (PB)

An American sailor on leave in Valporaiso rescues a beautiful girl from abduction. After being captured and shot several times himself in revenge the couple eventually marry. Spanish incorrectly printed. (PB)

A wealthy serf from Riga finally obtains freedom for himself and his family from his master near St Petersburg - in exchange for a barrel of oysters. (PB)