Chapter 8

SHADOWS BEFORE.

Mrs. Westmacott's great meeting for the
enfranchisement of woman had passed over, and it had been
a triumphant success. All the maids and matrons of the
southern suburbs had rallied at her summons, there was an
influential platform with Dr. Balthazar Walker in the
chair, and Admiral Hay Denver among his more prominent
supporters. One benighted male had come in from the
outside darkness and had jeered from the further end of
the hall, but he had been called to order by the chair,
petrified by indignant glances from the unenfranchised
around him, and finally escorted to the door by Charles
Westmacott. Fiery resolutions were passed, to be
forwarded to a large number of leading statesmen, and the
meeting broke up with the conviction that a shrewd
blow had been struck for the cause of woman.

But there was one woman at least to whom the meeting
and all that was connected with it had brought anything
but pleasure. Clara Walker watched with a heavy heart
the friendship and close intimacy which had sprung up
between her father and the widow. From week to week it
had increased until no day ever passed without their
being together. The coming meeting had been the excuse
for these continual interviews, but now the meeting was
over, and still the Doctor would refer every point which
rose to the judgment of his neighbor. He would talk,
too, to his two daughters of her strength of character,
her decisive mind, and of the necessity of their
cultivating her acquaintance and following her example,
until at last it had become his most common topic of
conversation.

All this might have passed as merely the natural
pleasure which an elderly man might take in the society
of an intelligent and handsome woman, but there were
other points which seemed to Clara to give it a deeper
meaning. She could not forget that when Charles
Westmacott had spoken to her one night he had alluded to
the possibility of his aunt marrying again. He must have
known or noticed something before he would speak upon
such a subject. And then again Mrs. Westmacott had
herself said that she hoped to change her style of
living shortly and take over completely new duties. What
could that mean except that she expected to marry? And
whom? She seemed to see few friends outside their own
little circle. She must have alluded to her father. It
was a hateful thought, and yet it must be faced.

One evening the Doctor had been rather late at his
neighbor's. He used to go into the Admiral's after
dinner, but now he turned more frequently in the other
direction. When he returned Clara was sitting alone in
the drawing-room reading a magazine. She sprang up as he
entered, pushed