This book contains: - The Mad Lady. - A Homely Sacrifice. - Her Eyes Are Doves. - An Angel in the House. - Yesterday. - The Conquering Will. - The Deacon's Whistle.

In 1859, she sent a story about Parisian life entitled "In a Cellar" to Atlantic Monthly. The magazine's editor, James Russell Lowell, at first believed the story to be a translation and withheld it from publication.