A name you know. A mood you’re in. Ten minutes to yourself. Start anywhere.
The readership the story was written for.
After a private is executed for striking an officer, a battlefield roll call receives an answer no one expects.
On a black, wind-lashed night, a cemetery watchman agrees to guide a lost pilgrim and begins to regret his kindness.
Two eager parents try to trap a schoolteacher into marrying their daughter, but their sacred evidence is less reliable than they think.
A police superintendent’s idea of justice changes each time a biting dog seems to belong to someone more powerful.
A frightened schoolboy’s failed Greek exam becomes a family crisis about poverty, ambition, and punishment.
A newly married couple’s perfect evening at a country station ends when an unexpected trainload recognizes them.
A Russian landowner insults his silent English governess while fishing, certain that language protects him from judgment.
An orphan girl races through an approaching storm to find a kindly cobbler who can free her brother from a hollow tree.
Two peasants keep vigil beside a shrouded stranger while a nervous pilgrim discovers that faith offers little protection from fear.
An ailing bank manager meets a petitioner whose helplessness proves more exhausting than any official problem.
A drunken father asks his patient son for money, then confesses every lie without finding the strength to stop repeating them.
Penniless after a hospital stay, a nightclub dancer visits an old admirer and finds that ordinary clothes have changed their acquaintance.
A practical railway guard hires a matchmaker and explains, in exact detail, the wife required for his future happiness.
A tipsy bridegroom regales a railway compartment with his philosophy of happiness while searching for the coach where his new wife waits.
A young man hides declarations of love inside the roar of a sled ride, leaving a frightened girl unsure whether hope or the wind is speaking.
Nine years after a joyful summer confession, a wealthy woman measures the life she let class and hesitation decide for her.
A wealthy lover tries to settle an adulterous triangle with cash, only to discover that affection cannot be bought.
A magistrate questions a peasant who cannot understand why taking one railway nut for a fishing weight is a crime.
A married woman tries to end a friend’s pursuit, only to discover that her principles are less secure than his attention makes them seem.
An unknown name on a civil councillor’s visitor list turns a small puzzle into a consuming spiritualist obsession.
A sensitive law student joins two friends on a tour of Moscow brothels and finds himself unable to accept their practiced indifference.
A comfortable reformer judges a village priest unfit for service, then learns what hunger looks like when pride tries to hide it.
A conscientious husband hires a midwife by night, but his rigid sense of fairness turns every ordinary exchange into an ordeal.
A bored husband reads his wife’s rambling letter and lectures her ignorance, exposing a contradiction in what he expects from women.
