A WOMAN’S WAR
A Novel
BY
WARWICK DEEPING
AUTHOR OF
“BESS OF THE WOODS”
“THE SLANDERERS”
ETC.
LONDON AND NEW YORK
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
MCMVII
Copyright, 1907, by Harper & Brothers.
All rights reserved.
Published June, 1907.
TO
COULSON KERNAHAN
MY FATHER’S FRIEND—AND MINE
IN MEMORY OF
MANY GENEROUS WORDS—AND DEEDS
A WOMAN’S WAR
CHAPTER I
There was a ripple of chimes through the frosty airas Catherine Murchison turned from King’s Walkinto Lombard Street, and saw the moon shining white andclear between the black parapets and chimney-stacks of theold houses. St. Antonia’s steeple was giving the hour ofthree, and a babel of lesser tongues answered from thesilence of the sleeping town. Hoar-frost glittered on thecypresses that stood in a garden bounding the road, andthe roofs were like silver under the hard, moonlit sky.
Catherine Murchison stopped before the great red-brickhouse with its white window-sashes, and its Georgian airof solidity and comfort. The brass lion’s-head on the doorseemed to twinkle a welcome to her above the plate thatcarried her husband’s name. She smiled to herself as shedrew the latch-key from the pocket under her sables, thehappy smile of a woman who comes home with no searchingsof the heart. Several shawl-clad figures went glidingalong under the shadows of the cypresses, giving her good-nightwith a flutter of laughter and tapping of shoes alongthe stones. Catherine waved her hand to the beshawledones as they scurried home, and caught a glimpse of St.Antonia’s spire diademed by the winter stars. She rememberedsuch a night seven years ago, and man’s loveand mother’s love had come to her since then.
Catherine closed the door gently, knowing that her husbandwould be asleep after a hard day’s work. It was notoften that he went with her to the social gatherings ofRoxton. Professional success, fraught