The Quaint Companions With an Introduction by H. G. Wells

Lee had not returned from the concert alone. Gregarious at all times, he never found solitude so little to his taste as when he left the platform--when he was still excited by t...

The month was November, and the King's Road wore its smartest air. This was in the time before Brighton boasted so many places of amusement and while it was much more amusing. P...

He went early in the afternoon, and he found her more cordial than on Marine Parade, though he gathered that she had been unprepared to see him so soon. He was shown into a smal...

When the time came for him to return to town, Mrs. Tremlett's first-floor lodgers left her, and Lee took the vacant rooms. Though his headquarters were in London, it was underst...

And she did not repent the promise, nor did her mother's consternation have any effect upon her, other than making her lend a willing ear to Lee's entreaties for a speedy marria...

But it was not in the woman's nature to refrain from accepting attentions and showing that they pleased her; and it was not in human nature for a husband who loved her to keep h...

The two boys had a daily governess, and Vivian was her favourite. She was an unsympathetic person, who prided herself on being extremely just, and she was careful to explain tha...

In the first days of an intended tour he had taken a slight cold. He had to leave for Birmingham on the morrow, and he reached it chilled and shivering. To sing was out of the q...

And Ownie--in weeds for the second time in her life--sighed as she had sighed when she lost Harris, "I don't know what will become of me!" Though her youth was gone, her egoism...

Thus began the second book of David's life, where so many books of life have begun, and where so many are fated to end--in a garret of a lodging-house. Now, too, began his acqua...

Professor Sorrenford had five daughters, but only the eldest and the youngest were unmarried; the others had removed to homes of their own. The house, of which the early Victori...

She was standing in her studio, in front of her Academy picture, wondering lazily when it would be finished, and if it would get in. She had exhibited several times at Birmingha...

Yes, David's success had come. It had not been won so easily as was imagined by the readers who had never heard of him till now, for he had written for many papers--verse and ar...

April was drawing to a close, and every evening the Professor said, "Have you heard from the Academy, my dear?" and sighed when she answered "No." She had begun to conclude that...

In June she went to Surrey for a month. She generally managed to make studies in the country during a few weeks in the year, and more often than not took Hilda with her, the Pro...

David sat hunched in a chair, the likeness on his knees. He had risen determinedly and put it from him twice--lodged it against one of the eyesores on the mantelpiece that were...

But it was not. When he woke, the day was radiant. A guileless sky denied its misdemeanour merrily. Mrs. Kemp, in clattering the china, asked him "how he lay last night." He tha...

This was the event of his second day here. This was all. He had seen her; the knowledge sang in his senses. Momentarily he felt that if his visit yielded no more, it would have...

The rest of the day was barren, and in the knowledge that their visit was so near its end, David chafed at each empty hour. He had seen Hilda for a moment only since the morning...

"Well, my dears," said the Professor, "and how are you, eh? Got nice and sunburnt, and done yourselves good, have you? Bee, my dear, you might just touch the bell--I told the gi...

know what I'll do,' I thought; 'I won't answer her--I'll say nothing about it--and on Saturday I'll pack my bag, and take her by surprise.' But God bless my soul! when Saturday...

The following morning there came to "Miss H. Sorrenford" a letter from David Lee--an urgent letter because he had been so long impatient, demanding an explanation of her silence...

Ownie's conjectures were not misleading her; the business manager's views of life had been deranged. To dress well and have a "good time" now appeared to him less dazzling a pro...

It reached her early the next afternoon. She was sitting before the dining-room fire, with a shilling manicure set in her lap, polishing her finger-nails. There was no one else...

He waited restlessly. The suspense that had shivered in him on the journey--that sickened him as the fly rattled through the town--had culminated with the sight of the house in...