CHAPTER XI.
"As out of a dream, paths impossible to sense and every day show plain and sudden transit into distant places, so from your shut souls widens out an entrance way into God's everlasting joy!"—A. D. T. Whitney.
At last the time came. She was to go for the last class in Marlow. The last problem as to what to be done while she was gone had been solved. The children were to be under the kind care of Anna, who agreed to do her best in looking after them.
Mrs. Hayden's wardrobe had received the necessary additions, the question of affording was not asked again, for it was like asking if she could afford food or clothing.
It meant a great deal to her, going out in the world to get this wonderful knowledge. It was a new way of seeking the kingdom of heaven, and it must surely teach the right knock that would open the door. The little light that had already come to her proved that, for never before in all her years of hungry longing had she been so well fed, so visibly nourished. Surely her soul could not be mistaken in thus dictating her quest.
"It seems too good to be true, John, that there is a way and that I am going to find it," she said a few days before she went away.
"I am very glad, dear Marion, for your sake, that you are so happy in this. It certainly is a beautiful religion as far as we can understand it."
"Yes, the very thing we tried so hard to find during all those years of darkness, and I have begun to actually feel thankful for our misfortunes, because it seems they have led us into this knowledge. What would we have known or cared for Miss Greening, had we been living in the mansion on the hill? Or what would we have believed, even if we had read something about Christian Healing?"
"It is hard to tell, but if you are content I am, wifie, although I should like the old home again."
Like many others he was able to appreciate the material good things, but knew not that the material are but emblems or symbols of the spiritual.