Led Astray and The Sphinx / Two Novellas In One Volume

Two linked novellas mix gentle social comedy and introspective romance through settings that range from provincial ruins to drawing-room encounters. One narrative follows a visitor who travels to inspect an ancient abbey, encountering local eccentricities, mistaken impressions, and the gap between imagined romance and mundane reality; the other turns on enigmatic behavior and ambiguous motives within a circle of acquaintances, provoking speculation and subtle revelations. Both pieces emphasize manners, perception, and the ironies of sentiment, balancing vivid scene-setting and character observation with a restrained, ironic tone that examines how fantasies and reputations shape human relations.