"'Tell me,' she said, 'did you ever
really do anything foolish in your
life?'" Frontispiece

"Julia"

"A wonderful woman"

"'Now you must call your flower a
name,' he said"




THE GOOD COMRADE

CHAPTER I

THE POLKINGTONS


The Polkingtons were of those people who do not dine. They lunched,
though few besides Johnny Gillat, who did not count, had been invited
to share that meal with them. They took tea, the daintiest,
pleasantest, most charming of teas, as the _élite_ of Marbridge knew;
everybody--or, rather, a selection of everybody, had had tea with them
one time or another. After that there was no record; the _élite_, who
would as soon have thought of going without their heads as without
their dinner, concluded they dined, because they were "one of us." But
some humbler folk were of opinion that they only dined once a week,