Life's Little Ironies: A set of tales with some colloquial sketches entitled A Few Crusted Characters

This collection of short stories was first published in one volume in 1894, it includes "An Imaginative Woman" orginally published in "Wessex Tales; " "On the Western Circuit", a favorite of Hardy's second wife, Florence; " A Tragedy of Two Ambitions", "The Fiddler of the Reels", "For Conscience Sake", "To Please His Wife", "A Few Crusted Characters", and "The Son's Veto", regarded by Hardy as his best short story.