"It will be only just at first, Eloise, that we shall seem to be far apart. Then you will be able to realize there is no distance in Mind. At first, when I came here, I seemed to be so far away from Cousin Alicia; but I never feel that now. I just know her thought is with me, and thought is the only real. It will be lovely to hear her voice again, and to feel my hand clasped in hers, but still that won't make her very own self nearer to me."
"I do not quite understand--yet, Carol," Eloise answered a little sadly. Then she had some news to give him. Early in the New Year the Burtons were going to live in London. True to his promise, Dr. Burton was giving up his medical practice, and was going to join that little band of men and women whose lives are consecrated to the work of destroying the many manifestations of sin and disease, in the way the Master taught.
"And, when you come back to the Manor, Carol, we shall not be here."
Eloise in one sentence regretfully summed up the situation.
"I shall miss you, dear Eloise. But you will write to me, and I shall write very often to you, and when I go home in the summer, perhaps Mrs. Burton will let you come, too. Then Cousin Alicia will be happy to have both her children in Science with her."
"That will be lovely, Carol! I am sure Mother will like me to visit Miss Desmond again. It seems a long time to look forward to, but time really passes very quickly. Sometimes the days are not long enough for all I want to do. I am to go to school when we live in London. All the beautiful things I have longed for are coming to me. Carol, I do wish every little girl and every little boy knew how to ask Divine Love for what they want. When I am older that is the work I want to do,--to teach other children as Miss Desmond taught me."
"And I, too, Eloise. Love is so near, but we didn't know it till we learned it in Science, did we?"
"No, Carol; I didn't know it, when I used to sit all day in my little wheel-chair, longing to walk like other children. It was like living in a dark room until some one came and opened the shutters to let the sunlight in. The sunlight was there all the time, but I did not know it. I was God's perfect child all the time, but I believed I was lame, until Miss Desmond taught me the Truth."
"When I go to bed, Eloise, thoughts come to me. I tell them to Auntie sometimes, but not to any one else. Shall I tell you what I was thinking last night?"
"Please, Carol, I should like to know."