Part 6 (1/2)
”Then it's all settled, and you can take your first treatment to-night,”
spoke up Mrs. Reade, volubly. ”I'm so anxious to see you strong and well like the rest of us,” she added half apologetically.
”It will seem too good to be true. I can not realize such a possibility.”
A thoughtful silence fell upon the little company for a few moments, and when they resumed their conversation, it was about something else.
At their usual tea time, Mr. Hayden, accompanied by Mr. Reade, came in, and all were presently called to the dining room.
Mr. and Mrs. Hayden had dropped all pretension of style in their present circ.u.mstances, and lived like their neighbors, in a modest but comfortable way. The children came trooping in when they heard the supper bell, and delightedly filed out to the dining room with their elders.
”Well, I hope you ladies have been enjoying yourselves this afternoon. I notice ladies have that faculty whenever they meet for an hour or so,”
said Mr. Hayden, with a genial smile, as he pa.s.sed the plates.
”Oh, we have indeed had a lovely time, and a profitable one, too, I hope,” said Mrs. Reade, impulsively.
”You have about converted Mrs. Hayden to your ideas, you and Helen together, I presume,” remarked Mr. Reade, as he spread his napkin out to its fullest capacity.
”I should certainly like to be converted, if so many wonderful things are possible as I have heard about this afternoon,” and Mrs. Hayden showed by the unusual energy in her manner and the brightness of her eyes that something had inspired her to an unwonted degree.
”Well now, tell me what all this is about. You seem to have conspired to talk in riddles,” exclaimed Mr. Hayden, with an injured air.
”Why, it is this new 'craze' they call Christian Healing that seems to have taken hold of our worthy partners, Mr. Hayden,” exclaimed Mr.
Reade, with a half-believing, half-skeptical air.
He really believed much more than he cared to acknowledge, but until he was better informed of Mr. Hayden's opinions, he thought ”discretion the better part of valor.” Someway we often stumble upon such characters in life. Good-natured souls they are, and so anxious to please everybody.
”I am not sure but there is a good deal in that, Reade. I heard some gentlemen talking about what was being done in Chicago, and it is truly wonderful. After all, we know that the mind has a great influence over the body, and why shouldn't we discover new abilities and powers in that as we develop in other directions?”
”To be sure; just what I have always said, and now I am having an opportunity to prove it since my wife is willing to listen,” replied Mr.
Reade, with graceful diplomacy.
”Oh, there is something far beyond what you gentlemen see--something so spiritual and beautiful, that mere intellect can not recognize it. But you will come to that after awhile, if you only seek to know for Truth's sake, though the recognition of what you see often comes first,”
interposed Miss Greening, with a warm flush of enthusiasm on her face.
”Certainly. I believe our capacity to recognize higher phases of thought grows with our eagerness to receive. That is true of any branch of study,” said Mrs. Hayden, with conviction. She was well pleased that her husband was so favorably inclined to hear, and expressed himself so cordially. While she was quite independent in her own way of thinking, it was still a keen pleasure to have her husband on the same side. He, on the other hand, had great confidence in her judgment, and generally allowed himself to be convinced, even if he had an opinion in the beginning. They had been especially near to each other the last year.
Miss Greening was mentally congratulating herself on having found such a ready audience, and felt as though she could do anything in the way of healing, as she talked on and on, telling them the many things that had happened in Princeton. She finished by saying, enthusiastically:
”When I had such wonderful proofs right before my eyes, do you wonder that I looked with awe and astonishment and wanted to know the secret of this power? Can you wonder that I felt anxious to go forth into all the world and preach the gospel? Oh, how delightful, I thought, to carry such blessed news and be able to give such blessed proof! So when Cousin Ruth's letter came, asking me to make her a visit, I felt that perhaps an opportunity would offer in which I might demonstrate the truth of my precious science, and here it is ready for me, the very work I wanted.
Yes, just as far as possible will I use my knowledge, though as yet it is but little, to help Mrs. Hayden.”
Miss Greening had waxed eloquent in her unconscious enthusiasm, and seeing the whole company gazing at her in astonished admiration, she paused suddenly, with a vivid flush on her face, saying: ”Pardon me. I did not mean to monopolize the conversation.”
”That apology is entirely unnecessary, for we have been listening to something so new that its very newness and unconventionality is quite refres.h.i.+ng, and certainly interesting,” said Mr. Hayden, warmly.