Chapter 10

WOMEN OF THE FUTURE.

From that day the Doctor's peace was gone. Never was
a quiet and orderly household transformed so suddenly
into a bear garden, or a happy man turned into such a
completely miserable one. He had never realized before
how entirely his daughters had shielded him from all the
friction of life. Now that they had not only ceased to
protect him, but had themselves become a source of
trouble to him, he began to understand how great the
blessing was which he had enjoyed, and to sigh for the
happy days before his girls had come under the influence
of his neighbor.

"You don't look happy," Mrs. Westmacott had remarked
to him one morning. "You are pale and a little off
color. You should come with me for a ten mile spin upon
the tandem."

"I am troubled about my girls." They were walking up
and down in the garden. From time to time there sounded
from the house behind them the long, sad wail of a French
horn.

"That is Ida," said he. "She has taken to
practicing on that dreadful instrument in the
intervals of her chemistry. And Clara is quite as bad.
I declare it is getting quite unendurable."

"Ah, Doctor, Doctor!" she cried, shaking her
forefinger, with a gleam of her white teeth. "You must
live up to your principles--you must give your daughters
the same liberty as you advocate for other women."

"Liberty, madam, certainly! But this approaches to
license."

"The same law for all, my friend." She tapped him
reprovingly on the arm with her sunshade. "When you were
twenty your father did not, I presume, object to your
learning chemistry or playing a musical instrument. You
would have thought it tyranny if he had."

"But there is such a sudden change in them both."

"Yes, I have noticed that they have been very
enthusiastic lately in the cause of liberty. Of all my
disciples I think that they promise to be the most
devoted and consistent, which is the more natural since
their father is one of our most trusted champions."

The Doctor gave a twitch of impatience. "I seem to
have lost all authority," he cried.

"No, no, my dear friend. They are a little exuberant
at having broken the trammels of custom. That is all."

"You cannot think what I have had to put up with,
madam. It has been a dreadful experience. Last night,
after I had extinguished the candle in my bedroom, I
placed my foot upon something smooth and hard, which
scuttled from under me. Imagine my horror! I lit the
gas, and came upon a well-grown tortoise which Clara has
thought fit to introduce into the house. I call it a
filthy custom to have such pets."

Mrs. Westmacott dropped him a little courtesy.
"Thank