A fresh young beauty becomes an old maid waiting for her suitor to return from the Napoleonic wars. When he returns, clearly disappointed, she disguises herself as her own niece in order to test his loyalty.

A young British doctor leaves his fiancé to go off and fight in the Napoleonic wars. Upon his return ten years later, he finds the the beautiful young girl he knew is now a tired, aging schoolteacher and he is no longer interested in her. She is still in love with him, however, and rather than give him up, she "reinvents" herself as her younger, perkier "niece" Livvy and tries to regain his interest.—[email protected]

Phoebe Throssel lives with her sister, Susan, and cheerfully suffers the prying eyes of the three Willoughby sisters, her busybody neighbors. Phoebe's suitor is the young Doctor Valentine Brown. Phoebe is devastated when Dr Brown pays her a call one day, and, instead of proposing marriage as she expects him to, announces that he is going off to fight in the Napoleonic wars. Years later, he returns, intending at long last to propose marriage to Phoebe. Phoebe and Susan are now keeping school, a job that has turned Phoebe into an old maid. Dr Brown is disappointed in the appearance of his onetime sweetheart. Outraged that he now considers her to be old, Phoebe disguises herself as her own niece and sets out to test the loyalty of the man she loves.—J. Spurlin