Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed.
Old Comrades
BY
AGNES GIBERNE
AUTHOR OF
"LIFE-TANGLES," "IDA'S SECRET," "WON AT LAST,"
"THE EARLS OF THE VILLAGE," ETC.
LONDON
JOHN F. SHAW AND CO.
48 PATERNOSTER ROW
CONTENTS
CHAP.
II. THINGS NOT IN THE COLONEL'S LINE
XV. THE SOMETHING THAT WAS WRONG
OLD COMRADES
CHAPTER I
A CHRISTMAS CARD
"DOROTHEA!"
The voice was deep-toned, verging on gruffness, and it lingered overthe name, not affectionately, but as if the speaker's mind were absent.
No answer came in words from the girl seated beyond the round table.She lowered the book in her hands, and waited.
"Dorothea!"
"Yes," she said.
"Fetch me the first volume of the Encyclopædia."
"The Encyclopædia?"
"Britannica, of course."
"Downstairs?" Dorothea asked hesitatingly.
"Of course!"—again. "Lowest shelf of the bookcase."
"That long row of big volumes! I think I saw the first volume upstairs."
"Then, my dear, it ought not to be. Everything should always be in itsright place."
Colonel Tracy spoke with the air of one enunciating a profound truth,disembosomed by himself for the first time in the history of theworld. He was a grey-haired veteran, with large features, a complexionof deep-red rust, and solid though not tall figure. Fifteen years o