Kate Douglas Wiggin (1856-1923) was best known for her novels about children and families ("Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" and "Mother Carey's Chickens"), but she was also a celebrated short story writer of romance.

In "A Cathedral Courtship", Kitty Schuyler is laboriously touring Europe's great cathedrals under the strict supervision of her Aunt Celia. When Jack Copley spies the lovely Kitty and accidentally discovers their itinerary, he pops up at each destination. Told from both perspectives, Kitty and Jack's love blooms under the nose of Aunt Celia, who proves more devoted to architecture than her duties as a chaperone.

Plucky "Miss Thomasina Tucker" has no need of a chaperone as she resolutely sails to England in pursuit of a musical career. She meets with mixed success until one evening when Mr. Fergus Appleton, relaxing in the lounge of his quaint Devonshire hotel, hears a bell-like voice from another room. Tommy is accompanying herself on the piano (like her namesake, she must sing for her supper), and the sparse audience seems impervious to her beautiful melodies. Not so Fergus Appleton ...

Huldah Rumford, aka "Huldah the Prophetess", is a great believer in signs. From her mother, she's inherited the belief that a rooster crowing on the doorstep means company is due; an itchy left hand means money coming in. Unfortunately, Huldah has also inherited her late father's stubbornness, so when her beau Pitt Packard proposes to marry on a Friday, she objects. Everyone knows that Fridays are bad luck, and it almost always rains on a Saturday!