A prolific writer of short stories, Elizabeth Bowen claimed towards the end of her life that ""a story deals in the not-yet-thought-of but always possible."" Covering a range of situations - broken engagements, encounters with ghosts, brushes with crime - these stories demonstrate the virtuosity of technique that characterizes all of Bowen's writing. With this collection, Bowen, gifted with keen social observation, justifies her place in the company of D. H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, Virginia Woolf, and James Joyce.