Cirrus@Austlit

An English maiden meets a recuperating cricketer. Her test of his love by sending a fake telegram from a fascinating French widow seems to reveal infidelity - until he reveals that it miscarried and he was called back to France for a cricket match ... (PB)

A broken engagement is eventually repaired after a plucky heroine is near-murdered by a burglar whom she wounds with a pistol. Her suitor and his savage bloodhound rescue her from the men's attack ... Includes sick-bed scenes. (PB)

A marriage is arranged between an English gentleman and his French cousin which both refuse. But their acquaintance at balls and other events leads to love. (PB)

An elderly ex-army captain proposes to his landlady who he mistakes for her sister. (PB)

Set during a country house party. A bachelor consents to shave off his moustache for amateur theatricals to win the hand of his beloved. After the play he discovers that he has lost her to his friend - he did not shave his moustache himself but was shaved under the influence of choloroform from her handkerchief. (PB)

Life and romance of the younger son of a public executioner. The shadow of the hereditory office hangs heavy over his solitary childhood and career as a journalist in Madrid. He falls in love with the sister of his only friend but on the eve of their wedding has to flee England as his older brother and his son are accidentally killed. (PB)

Courtship begins when a man assists a woman to find a doctor for her mother. They lose touch but then are reunited through the Tit-Bits literary competition. (PB)

Romance via carrier pigeon. A medical student becomes an unwitting third party to the courtship by correspondence between lovers banished until the unhappy suitor can find a well paid job. The student with the help of his merchant banker's daughter helps him find a job as book-keeper and the pair are married. (PB)

The Russian Empress Elizabeth finds a phantom counterpart has taken possession of the new Winter Palace before her - she confronts it, and dies 8 weeks later. (PB)

Domestic. A farmer's wife dies of over-work and lack of affection - her husband discovering his neglect too late. (PB)

Romance between a governess and the headmaster of a small grammar school. They are married through a valentine sent as a practical joke but several months of misunderstanding pass before mutual love is confessed. (PB)

Tale of Paris during the siege. The humbug of a captain of franc-tireurs who woos the daughter of a cloth-merchant away from her father's head clerk is exposed by the narrator's Christmas present of a live bomb shell - of chocolate. (PB)

Romance of a society woman told by a broken and dying fan. Its mistress scorned all suitors but when she ruined an honest man's life she became a nun. (PB)

A travelling hawker is murdered between the shafts of his wagon and suspicion points to Bill Carrol, hired man at the Martin's farm and engaged to their daughter Ellen. Mr Martin opposes the match - and when he is thrown from his horse confesses to the crime on his deathbed. Local constable and detective from Melbourne; wedding silk spotted with blood; suspect's criminal recrod; husband-wife discord. (PB)

A Liverpool clerk is accidentally locked in a safe over Christmas frustrating his plans to spend it with his fiancee. He scares off some burglars and is arrested himself ... (PB)