Margaret was trying to recall something she heard Judge Kirtley say one day about somebody—she was thinking it was the suffragists—prodding the legislatures up to a change of defective laws. She gave a faint sigh. If only they would spend their time and energies on laws affecting flesh and blood instead of forever harping upon property rights and suffrage!
She felt heavy-hearted to-day. Judge Kirtley had just told her that there had been a postponement of the case. It was not likely to come to trial for months yet. The docket was so full that it was impossible to tell when her case would be reached. They could only be patient and wait. She felt that she could not be patient any longer. Her heart was sick with waiting. It would soon be Christmas and she could not even have the child with her then. That was a sore spot. She had written to Mr. De Jarnette, asking if Philip might not be allowed to come to her house for the holidays. It did not seem to her that she could bear it to spend that season which was so much to both of them without him. She had planned that Philip and Louis should hang up their stockings side by side in Rosalie's room, and in the evening have their Christmas tree there.
Mr. De Jarnette had replied briefly but courteously that he was sorry not to grant her request, but for reasons unnecessary to state, it seemed best that Philip should spend the holidays at Elmhurst. He trusted that she would feel at liberty to come to him there for the day if she so desired.
She tore the letter into bits, furious at him for refusing her request and at herself for making it. Why had she humiliated herself to ask a favor at his hands? Oh, when would it all be over? she thought with a sick longing for her boy. When would she be freed from this man's iron hand? Her heart was sending up the old, old cry, "How long, O Lord! how long!"
"Margaret," said Mrs. Pennybacker the night of the meeting, dropping a lump of sugar into her coffee as she spoke, "I can tell you the straight of this thing now. While I was over at Maria's this afternoon she had a call from a Mrs. Slyter who had come to enlist her in it. I thought she was on rather a cold trail, but I did not think it necessary to tell her so."
"Mrs. Slyter?" exclaimed Margaret, wonderingly, "Why, Mrs. Slyter is a society woman. Of what interest could it be to her?"
"I don't know, but it has certainly enlisted her."
"What did Mrs. Slyter have to say about it?"
"She says it is a concerted effort on the part of the women's clubs of the District to have some radical changes made in the laws relating to women. This lecture is to call attention to the necessity for such changes."
"In other words, the speaker is going to tell the women what their wrongs are. They can't have been very hard hit if they don't know without being told," said Margaret, a little scornfully.