Jessie Catherine Couvreur

[2] Her father, Alfred James Huybers, came originally from Antwerp,[2] and his daughter was of Dutch, French and English descent.

The marriage was unfortunate, and was dissolved on the petition of the wife in December 1883 on grounds of adultery and desertion of more than two years.

[3] In 1873 she visited Europe, and between 1879 and 1883 spent much time there giving courses of lectures in French at various European cities.

At sixteen years of age, Madame Couvreur, then Miss Huybers, had verses accepted by the Australian Journal, and she afterwards contributed essays and short stories to the Australasian and the Melbourne Review.

It had an immediate success and was followed by In her Earliest Youth (1890), A Sydney Sovereign and other Tales (1890), The Penance of Portia James (1891), A Knight of the White Feather (1892), Not Counting the Cost (1895), and A Fiery Ordeal (1897).