uge for
outcast children should be opened under the auspices of the
Theosophical Society.

The lease of 17, Lansdowne Road expiring in the early summer of 1890,
it was decided that 19, Avenue Road should be turned into the
headquarters of the Theosophical Society in Europe. A hall was built
for the meetings of the Blavatsky Lodge--the lodge founded by her--and
various alterations made. In July her staff of workers was united
under one roof; thither came Archibald and Bertram Keightley, who had
devoted themselves to her service years before, and the Countess
Wachtmeister, who had thrown aside all the luxuries of wealth and of
high social rank to give all to the cause she served and the friend
she loved with deep and faithful loyajty; and George Mead, her
secretary and earnest disciple, a man of strong brain and strong
character, a fine scholar and untiring worker; thither, too, Claude
Wright, most lovable of Irishmen, with keen insight underlying a
bright and sunny nature, careless on the surface, and Walter Old,
dreamy and sensitive, a born psychic, and, like many such, easily
swayed by those around him; Emily Kislingbury also, a studious and
earnest woman; Isabel Cooper Oakley, intuitional and studious, a rare
combination, and a most devoted pupil in Occult studies; James Pryse,
an American, than whom none is more devoted, bringing practical
knowledge to the help of the work, and making possible the large
development of our printing department. These, with myself, were at
first the resident staff, Miss Cooper and Herbert Burrows, who were
also identified with the work, being prevented by other obligations
from living always as part of the household.

The rules of the house were--and are--very simple, but H.P.B.
insisted on great regularity of life; we breakfasted at 8 a.m.,
worked till lunch at 1, then again till dinner at 7. After dinner
the outer work for the Society was put aside, and we gathered in
H.P.B.'s room where we would sit talking over plans, receiving
instructions, listening to her explanation of knotty points. By 12
midnight all the lights had to be extinguished. My public work took me
away for many hours, unfortunately for myself, but such was the
regular run of our busy lives. She herself wrote incessantly; always
suffering, but of indomitable will, she drove her body through its
tasks, merciless to its weaknesses and its pains. Her pupils she
treated very variously, adapting herself with nicest accu