Produced by Suzanne Shell, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [Illustration: "'Tell me,' she said, 'did you ever really do anything foolish in your life?'"] The Good Comrade By UNA L. SILBERRAD Illustrated by Anna Whelan Betts New York Doubleday, Page & Company 1907 COPYRIGHT, 1907, BY DOUBLEDAY PAGE & COMPANY PUBLISHED, SEPTEMBER, 1907 CONTENTS CHAPTER I. THE POLKINGTONS II. THE DEBT III. NARCISSUS TRIANDRUS AZUREUM IV. THE OWNER OF THE BLUE DAFFODIL V. THE EXCURSION VI. DEBTOR AND CREDITOR VII. HOW JULIA DID NOT GET THE BLUE DAFFODIL VIII. POOFERCHJES AND JEALOUSY IX. THE HOLIDAY X. TO-MORROW XI. A REPRIEVE XII. THE YOUNG COOK XIII. THE HEIRESS XIV. THE END OF THE CAMPAIGN XV. THE GOOD COMRADE XVI. THE SIMPLE LIFE XVII. NARCISSUS TRIANDRUS STRIATUM, THE GOOD COMRADE XVIII. BEHIND THE CHOPPING-BLOCK XIX. CAPTAIN POLKINGTON XX. THE BENEFACTOR XXI. THE GOING OF THE GOOD COMRADE XXII. THE LINE OF LEAST RESISTANCE XXIII. PAYMENT AND RECEIPT ILLUSTRATIONS "'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 _elite_ 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 _elite_, 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, and that after morning service on Sundays; but even this idea was dispelled when the eldest Miss Polkington was heard to excuse her non-appearance at an organ recital because "lunch was always so late on Sunday."