Politics in and about Jordanville were accepted as a
purely masculine interest. If you had asked Mrs Crow to
take a hand in them she would have thanked you with
sarcasm, and said she thought she had about enough to do
as it was. The school-house, on the night of such a
meeting as this, was recognized to be no place for ladies.
It was a man's affair, left to the men, and the appearance
there of the other sex would have been greeted with remark
and levity. Elgin, as we know, was more sophisticated in
every way, plenty of ladies attended political meetings
in the Drill Shed, where seats as likely as not would be
reserved for them; plenty of handkerchiefs waved there
for the encouragement of the hero of the evening. They
did not kiss him; British phlegm, so far, had stayed that
demonstration at the southern border.
The ladies of Elgin, however, drew the line somewhere,
drew it at country meetings. Mrs Farquharson went with
her husband because, since his state of health had handed
him over to her more than ever, she saw it a part of her
wifely duty. His retirement had been decided upon for
the spring, but she would be on hand to retire him at
any earlier moment should the necessity arise. "We'll be
the only female creatures there, my dear," she had said
to Dora on the way out, and Hesketh had praised them both
for public spirit.
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