Miss Bracegirdle and others

"Miss Bracegirdle and others" by Stacy Aumonier is a collection of short stories written in the early 20th century. The tales blend irony, compassion, and suspense as ordinary people stumble into sharp moral tests and social entanglements, from a timid Englishwoman abroad to London toughs and quietly envious villagers. The opening of the collection first follows Miss Millicent Bracegirdle, a dutiful spinster who, after a daunting journey to Bordeaux, mistakenly enters a stranger’s room, hides under his bed in panic, then discovers he is dead—later learning he was a wanted killer—and escapes with her reputation intact, keeping the night’s ordeal to herself. Next, a barroom argument over the vanished Wych Street triggers a brawl, a notorious Wapping siege, and a public inquiry; a rising K.C. is twice humiliated over that trivial point, then risks his career when conscience won’t let him issue a false apology to a powerful rival. Finally, “The Octave of Jealousy” begins with a tramp on the road and moves through a country chain of comparisons and quiet resentments—farmhand, gamekeeper, shopkeeper, publican, and gentry—showing how small envies ripple through a village and set larger tensions in motion.

Miss Bracegirdle and others, by Stacy Aumonier. Republished by OpenStories from Project Gutenberg eBook #78481.