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.”

Let it not be imagined from this that the Polkingtons were common people—­they were not; they were extremely well connected; indeed, their connections were one of the two striking features about them, the other was their handicap, Captain Polkington, late of the ——­th Bengal Lancers.  He was well connected, though not quite so much so as his wife; still—­well, but he was not very presentable.  If only he had been dead he would have been a valuable asset, but living, he was decidedly rather a drawback; there are some relatives like this.  Mrs. Polkington bore up under it valiantly; in fact, they all did so well that in time they, or at least she and two of her three daughters, came almost to believe some of the legends they told of the Captain.

The Polkingtons lived at No. 27 East Street, which, as all who know Marbridge are aware, is a very good street in which to live.  The house was rather small, but the drawing-room was good, with two beautiful Queen Anne windows, and a white door with six panels.  The rest of the house did not matter.  On the whole the drawing-room did not so very much matter, because visitors seldom went into it when the Miss Polkingtons were not there; and when they were, no one but a jealous woman would have noticed that the furniture was rather slight, and there were no flowers except those in obvious places.

There was only one Miss Polkington in the drawing-room that wintry afternoon—­Julia, the middle one of the three, the only one who could not fill even a larger room to the complete obliteration of furniture and fitments.  Julia was not pretty, therefore she was seldom to be found in the drawing-room alone; she knew better than to attempt to occupy that stage by herself.  But it was now almost seven o’clock, too late for any one to come; also, since there was no light but the fire, deficiencies were not noticeable.  She felt secure of interruption, and stood with one foot on the fender, looking earnestly into the fire.