had begun to shape a definite
purpose; she was still to be a message-bearer, but the message must be
set forth in her life conduct. The futility of promiscuous verbal
delivery of the message to whomsoever might cross her path had
been made patent. Jesus taught--and then proved. She must do
likewise, and let her deeds attest the truth of her words. And from
the day that she bade the suggestions of fear and evil leave her,
she had consecrated herself anew to a searching study of the
Master's life and words, if happily she might acquire "that mind"
which he so wondrously expressed.

But the assumption of an attitude of quiet demonstration was by no
means sudden. There were times when she could not restrain the impulse
to challenge the beliefs so authoritatively set forth by the preachers
and lecturers whom Madam Elwin invited to address her pupils, and who,
unlike Jesus, first taught, and then relegated their proofs to a life
beyond the grave. Once, shortly after entering the school, forgetful
of all but the error being preached, she had risen in the midst of an
eloquent sermon by the eminent Darius Borwell, a Presbyterian divine
of considerable repute, and asked him why it was that, as he seemed to
set forth, God had changed His mind after creating spiritual man, and
had created a man of dust. She had later repented her scandalous
conduct in sackcloth and ashes; but it did not prevent her from
abruptly leaving the chapel on a subsequent Sunday when another
divine, this time a complaisant Methodist, quite satisfied with his
theories of endless future rewards and fiery punishments, dwelt at
length upon the traditional idea that the sorrows of the world are
God-sent for mankind's chastisement and discipline.

Then she gradually learned to be less defiant of the conventions and
beliefs of the day, and determined quietly to rise superior to them.
But her experience with the preachers wrought within her a strong
determination henceforth to listen to no religious propaganda
whatsoever, to give no further heed to current theological beliefs,
and to enter no church edifice, regardless of the tenets of the sect
worshiping within its precincts. The wisdom of this decision she left
for the future to determine.

"Oh," she cried, "my only mission is to manifest the divine, not to
waste time listening to the theories of ignorant preachers, who fail
utterly to prove the truth of their teachings! Oh, how the world needs
love--just lo