184
XXII. The Herne Party 201
XXIII. A Visit from Barker and Brookes 218
XXIV. Out of Bondage 233
Epilogue 248
PROLOGUE.
This book is not written for the specialist, but for that restless,
seething multitude known as "the masses." It is written for busy people,
for workers, such as the shop-girl, the factory-girl, the clerk, the
mechanic, the farmer, the merchant, and the busy housewife; but
ministers, lawyers, and doctors may find food for thought within its
covers.
My heart goes out to God's secular army, composed of those who have
neither time nor opportunity to go through learned treatises and
scholarly essays, yet whose natures are hungering for something better
than they see and hear about them. So I have tried to weave into this
story the best and latest thought that has been given to the world,
believing it to be what the workers most need in the performance of
their daily duties, and what will help them out of bondage.
People whose reading and observation have been limited may think that I
have drawn on my imagination altogether for most of the material in this
book. I can assure them that such is not the case; much of it is real.
In regard to Penloe, there have been men who had greater spiritual gifts
than he, and I call to mind one, still living, whose illuminated
countenance and remarkable personality are superior to his. In Penloe is
seen the interior life of the Hindu combined with the best practical
thought of the West.
Let a youth or maiden commence to live the life described by the man who
won the heart of the "Oriental Lady," related by Penloe in his
"Original Address," and he or she will then realize the facts which have
made the characters of Penloe and Stella.
To any sensitive, fastidious reader I would say, it becomes an author,
in order to be true to life, to present certain characters as they
really are, and put into their mouths the language they actually use.
Whatever there is of error in the book is the result of egoism; whatever
of truth and love is the work of Him who has brought me up out of the
marshes and lowlands, and caused me to drink at the crystal fountains of
the hills.
THE AUTHOR.
A CALIFORNIA GIRL.
CHAPTER I.
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