The Shadow Riders

The Shadow Riders by Isabel Paterson, published 1916, is a romantic drama set during a Canadian provincial election in Alberta. The novel opens with the arrival of Whittemore, a refined, world-weary gentleman near forty, at a railway station where he's met by his friend Burrage and acquaintance Jack Addison. After the men are directed to Addison's rooms downtown, they unexpectedly witness through a mirror a charged confrontation between Addison's roommate Harry Garth and a young woman named Eileen Conway. The scene escalates when Eileen, deeply angry with Garth's refusal to commit to her, produces a revolver she had concealed, attempting to shoot him. Though Garth disarms her, she flees the building. The narrative establishes Eileen as a striking, vital young woman from a strict religious family, whose passionate nature has been suppressed by her upbringing.