A collection marked by the selection of stories concentrating on lasting and real romance, of love stories of mood, marriage and intensity. This emphasis eliminates any feeling of ephemeral romance, of temporary literary values, and the authoring- by Pushkin, Galsworthy, George Moore, W. Somerset Maugham, Tchekhov, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, de Maupassant, Joseph Hergesheimer, Irwin Shaw, F.W. Bain and Frederick Wedmore, testifies to a catholicity of taste, tempo and period, to a sustained quality in the selections. For critical rather than popular savoring.