_Comrades_ is a four-act comedy of marriage. Axel Alberg and his wife are Swedish painters in Paris. They have each painted a picture which has been submitted to the Salon. In Act I we find Axel at work in the studio. He is a good fellow, honest, painstaking, generous. Friends call and discover his embarrassing position as a married comrade. There is the doctor, mature in experience and philosophical in outlook, who when Axel asks him if he does not believe in woman answers: "No, I don't. But I love her." There is the sensible, matter-of-fact Lieutenant Starck, who will stand no nonsense from women, and whose happy, normal wife knows that woman's real happiness is found in subjection unto her husband. They are shocked to hear of Bertha's tastes and habits. Bertha comes home. She has kept her nude male model waiting, and her poor husband has had to pay five francs in consequence of her unpunctuality. This is a small part of the sacrifices he has made for her artistic career. In the scenes that follow we see Bertha insisting on keeping the household accounts, though her head cannot grapple with the simplest problems of addition and subtraction. She has made false entries, and deliberately deceives Axel as to the manner in which the funds of the comradeship are expended. She coquettes with Willmer, a young writer, and receives presents from him. Intent upon securing the acceptance of her picture, she makes nefarious use of Axel's love for her. _Bertha_. Will you be very kind to me? Very? _Axel_. I always want to be kind to you, my dear. _Bertha_. Do you? Look here, you know Roubey, don't you? _Axel_. Yes, I met him in Vienna, and we became good friends. _Bertha_. You know that he is a member of the jury? _Axel_. Well, what about that? _Bertha_. Yes, now you will be angry. I know it. _Axel_. If you know it, don't make me angry. _Bertha_ (_caresses him_). You won't sacrifice anything for your wife--nothing. _Axel_. Go and beg? No, that I won't do. _Bertha_. Not for yourself, for your picture will probably be accepted all the same, but for your wife? _Axel_. Don't ask me. _Bertha_. I should really never ask anything of you. _Axel_. Yes, things which I can do without sacrificing.... _Bertha_. Your manly pride. _Axel_. Let us leave it at that. _Bertha_. But I should sacrifice my womanly pride, if I could help you. _Axel_. You have no pride. _Bertha_. Axel! _Axel_. There, there, forgive me. _Bertha_. I am sure you are jealous of me. I am sure you would not like my picture to be accepted. _Axel_. Nothing would delight me more, I assure you, Bertha. _Bertha_. Would it also delight you if I were accepted and you were refused?