Across the way, Mrs. Herrington, the fighting blood of five generations of patriots roused in her, had reinstated the Voiceless Speech. PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS _George Remington_... Aged twenty-six; newly married. Recently returned to his home town, New York State, to take up the practice of law. Politically ambitious, a candidate for District Attorney. Opposed to woman suffrage. _Genevieve_... His wife, aged twenty-three, graduate of Smith. Devoted to George; her ideal being to share his every thought. _Betty Sheridan_... A friend of Genevieve. Very pretty; one of the first families, well-to-do but in search of economic independence. Working as stenographer in George's office; an ardent Suffragist. _Penfield Evans_... Otherwise "Penny," George's partner, in love with Betty. Neutral on the subject of Suffrage. _Alys Brewster-Smith_... Cousin of George, once removed; thirty-three, a married woman by profession, but temporarily widowed. Anti-suffragist. One Angel Child aged five. _Martin Jaffry_... Uncle to George, bachelor of uncertain age and certain income. The widow's destined prey. _Cousin Emelene_.... On Genevieve's side. Between thirty-five and forty, a born spinster but clinging to the hope of marriage as the only career for women. Has a small and decreasing income. Affectedly feminine and genuinely incompetent. _Mrs. Harvey Herrington_.... President of the Woman's Club, the Municipal League, Suffrage Society leader, wealthy, cultured and possessing a sense of humor. _Percival Pauncefoot Sheridan_.... Betty's brother, fifteen, commonly called Pudge. Pink, pudgy, sensitive; always imposed upon, always grouchy and too good-natured to assert himself. _E. Eliot_.... Real estate agent (added in Chapter VI by Henry Kitchell Webster). _Benjamin Doolittle_.... A leader of his party, and somewhat careless where he leads it. (Added in Anne O'Hagan's Chapter). _Patrick Noonan_.... A follower of Doolittle. Time.... The Present. Place.... Whitewater, N. Y. A manufacturing town of from ten to fifteen thousand inhabitants. THE STURDY OAK CHAPTER I. BY SAMUEL MERWIN Genevieve Remington had been called beautiful. She was tall, with brown eyes and a fine spun mass of golden-brown hair. She had a gentle smile, that disclosed white, even teeth. Her voice was not unmusical. She was twenty-three years old and possessed a husband who, though only twenty-six, had already shown such strength of character and such aptitude at the criminal branch of the law that he was now a candidate for the post of district attorney on the regular Republican ticket.