When the wished-for volume was handed to him he opened the cover
and glanced at the title page, reading therefrom, "Science and
Health, with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker G. Eddy." A
peculiar smile, in which there may have been a trace of self-
contempt, wreathed his lips as he slipped it under his arm and
then made his way from the building.
He stopped at a cafe near by and partook of a light meal, after
which he returned to his office and read from his book as long as
daylight lasted, without once laying it aside. Then, lighting a
student lamp, he became absorbed again, reading on until the clock
struck ten.
"There is much I do not understand! much I cannot grasp!" he
exclaimed, a note of impatience in his voice, and the perplexing
work was tossed somewhat irreverently upon the table. "It so
radically reverses preconceived ideas and opinions; it seems so
abstruse, vague and intangible, it irritates me. And yet, in the
light of what Mrs. Minturn and her daughter have told me, I
believe I have caught a glimpse, here and there, of the meaning of
some of its statements. It is like trying to march through a
tangled wilderness," he continued, as he picked up the book again
and slowly slipped the leaves through his fingers; "but I'll read
the thing through, now that I have begun it, though I have a
suspicion that I shall only get deeper into an impenetrable
thicket."
While Phillip Stanley was thus engaged, Mrs. Seabrook was
earnestly discussing the same subject with her husband. She
related to him her recent conversation with her brother, also her
suspicions regarding what had so almost miraculously banished Miss
Reynolds' severe malady, and repeated some things which she had
overheard during her brother's interview with Katherine.
Prof. Seabrook, usually so considerate and tender in all his
relations with his dear ones--such a gentle man in every sense of
the word--sat listening with averted face and brow heavily
overcast, his finely chiseled lips compressed into an obstinate,
rigid line.
"William, do let us give it a trial; it certainly could do no
harm, and it might give Dorrie some relief from the pain," pleaded
his wife, but studying the unsympathetic face opposite her with
mingled anxiety and surprise.
There was an awkward silence when she concluded; but at length her
companion observed, in a repressed tone:
"Emelie, Phillip and I have already discussed this subject."
"I know; he has told me, Will; but I thought, perhaps, after you
had given the matter more consideration, in view of these recent
developments, you might think more favorably of it," Mrs. Seabrook
eagerly interposed.
"But I do not think more favorably of it," was the cold response.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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