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A Russian landowner insults his silent English governess while fishing, certain that language protects him from judgment.
A failed hunting trip brings a ruined prince to the edge of an estate owned by the wealthy woman he once refused to marry.
Once a year, a lazy village drunk becomes an exacting artist whose work belongs to an entire community.
An impoverished landowner lectures a promising guest on aristocratic superiority while his daughters wait for a chance to speak.
A village choirmaster drills his singers for months to impress a visiting count who may not care to hear them.
A student asks his volatile father for money to return to Moscow, turning an ordinary family dinner into a reckoning none can resolve.
Two tipsy lawyers take a wrong turn after a long walk from the station and break into the wrong country cottage.
A minor clerk bursts home ecstatic that his name has appeared in print, whatever the reason.
A pompous official receives a tribute from his subordinates whose solemn meaning may not survive the trip home.
A small-town mayor sees a visiting Persian dignitary as his best chance to acquire the decoration he covets.
A wealthy engineer and a poor village try to become good neighbors, but suspicion and small grievances steadily undo their goodwill.
A gravely ill schoolmaster insists on attending the annual dinner that celebrates his pupils, determined to reject every hint of weakness.
Psyche Zenobia climbs an Edinburgh steeple in search of material for a sensation article and puts her head through a clock face.
A cook who considers himself a great philosopher receives a visit from the Devil and tries to bargain away his soul.
A guide takes a modern visitor through ancient Antioch, where a violent king prepares an animal costume for his latest public triumph.
An ambitious literary society secretary asks a famous editor to teach her the formula for a fashionable tale of extreme sensation.
A man becomes a social celebrity by making his nose the subject of a supposedly learned science.
A solemn student prankster tests a famous duelist’s pride with an insult designed to turn etiquette against him.
Toby Dammit's habit of betting the Devil his head becomes literal when a stranger accepts the wager at a covered bridge.
A group of confident American scholars revives an Egyptian mummy and discovers that he has a low opinion of modern progress.
A drunk skeptic mocks reports of strange accidents, then meets the official responsible for making unlikely events happen.
A vain French duke dies over a badly served delicacy and challenges the Devil to a card game for his freedom.
A prince walls his court inside a castellated abbey to outparty a plague — through seven colored rooms.
A vain young heir falls for a woman he can barely see and rushes toward marriage before he understands who she is.
