Two Bites at a Cherry, with Other Tales

This ecclcetic mix of short stories features a story called "The Chevalier de Resseguier," which is Poesque in plot if not in moood. It is about a young literary critic who purchases a human skull at "a queer bookshop . . . [that] dealt in none but works on phrenology, toxicology, evolution, mesmerism, spiritualism, and kindred occult sciences" (95). The other stories in the collection are "Two Bites at a Cherry," "'For Bravery on the Field of Battle'," "Goliath," "My Cousin the Colonel," "A Christmas Fantasy, with a Moral," and "Her Dying Words."