`` About ten o'clock Gertrude went to the ` phone and happened to catch someone from over-harbour talking to Carter Flagg . Gertrude shamelessly listened in and got for her comforting what eavesdroppers are proverbially supposed to get -- to wit , unpleasant hearing ; the Union Government had ` done nothing ' in the West . `` We looked at each other in dismay . If the Government had failed to carry the West , it was defeated . '' ` Canada is disgraced in the eyes of the world , ' said Gertrude bitterly . '' ` If everybody was like the Mark Crawfords over-harbour this would not have happened , ' groaned Susan . ` Yhey locked their Uncle up in the barn this morning and would not let him out until he promised to vote Union . That is what I call effective argument , Mrs. Dr. dear . ' `` Gertrude and I could n't rest after all that . We walked the floor until our legs gave out and we had to sit down perforce . Mother knitted away as steadily as clockwork and pretended to be calm and serene -- pretended so well that we were all deceived and envious until the next day , when I caught her ravelling out four inches of her sock . She had knit that far past where the heel should have begun ! `` It was twelve before father came home . He stood in the doorway and looked at us and we looked at him . We did not dare ask him what the news was . Then he said that it was Laurier who had ` done nothing ' in the West , and that the Union Government was in with a big majority . Gertrude clapped her hands . I wanted to laugh and cry , mother 's eyes flashed with their old-time starriness and Susan emitted a queer sound between a gasp and a whoop . `` This will not comfort the Kaiser much , ' she said . `` Then we went to bed , but were too excited to sleep .
Really , as XXXXX said solemnly this morning , ` Mrs. Dr. dear , I think politics are too strenuous for women . ' ''
Flagg Gertrude Mother Susan Yhey eavesdroppers morning over-harbour ravelling starriness