Mr Lismore and the Widow' - a 'Little Novel' by Wilkie Collins

Ernest Lismore is in financial difficulties. In return for a token marriage, he is offered help by the elderly Mrs. Callender whom he had saved from a fire some years earlier. Lismore eventually agrees and they live abroad as mother and son until he meets an attractive girl in an art gallery.

'Little Novels' published in 1887 is a collection of fourteen short stories by Wilkie Collins. Revised by the author, these stories had appeared in various British and American periodicals over the previous 10 years, very often with different titles. They are stand-alone stories dealing with a variety of subjects: love, marriage, the supernatural, class, money, and murder; most of them contain a mystery or twist to the tale which is bound to delight fans of Collins' best-known novels, 'The Woman in White' and 'The Moonstone.'

'Mr Lismore and the Widow' is the fifth story in the collection. It was originally published as 'She Loves and Lies' in The Spirit of the Times, 22 December 1883; and in Tales from Many Sources, vol 4, 1885.