This collection presents a series of short, humorous and satirical tales that examine chance, social perception, and human foibles. One story follows an impoverished stranger who suddenly possesses an enormous bank-note and discovers how wealth's appearance reshapes treatment and opportunity. Others probe purported mental telepathy, playful cures for melancholy, romantic misunderstandings resolved by irony, and lively sketches of ships and travel. Additional pieces send up civic boosterism and literary pretension, stage a mock petition to a monarch, and close with a playful archaeological metaphor about outdated letters and tastes. Wit and irony tie the varied pieces into a brisk critique of manners and credulity.