FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151  
152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   >>   >|  
orce, accompanied her to it. "When your aura goes visiting in the other world," she asked, curiously, "does it ever meet your old friend Charles Bradlaugh?" "Oh yes," declared Mrs. Besant. "Frequently." "Wasn't he very much surprised," demanded Miss Anthony, with growing interest, "to discover that he was not dead?" Mrs. Besant did not seem to know what emotion Mr. Bradlaugh had experienced when that revelation came. "Well," mused "Aunt Susan," "I should think he would have been surprised. He was so certain he was going to be dead that it must have been astounding to discover he wasn't. What was he doing in the other world?" Mrs. Besant heaved a deeper sigh. "I am very much discouraged over Mr. Bradlaugh," she admitted, wanly. "He is hovering too near this world. He cannot seem to get away from his mundane interests. He is as much concerned with parliamentary affairs now as when he was on this plane." "Humph!" said Miss Anthony; "that's the most sensible thing I've heard yet about the other world. It encourages me. I've always felt sure that if I entered the other life before women were enfranchised nothing in the glories of heaven would interest me so much as the work for women's freedom on earth. Now," she ended, "I shall be like Mr. Bradlaugh. I shall hover round and continue my work here." When Mrs. Besant had left the room Mrs. Bright felt that it was her duty to admonish "Aunt Susan" to be more careful in what she said. "You are making too light of her creed," she expostulated. "You do not realize the important position Mrs. Besant holds. Why, in India, when she walks from her home to her school all those she meets prostrate themselves. Even the learned men prostrate themselves and put their faces on the ground as she goes by." "Aunt Susan's" voice, when she replied, took on the tones of one who is sorely tried. "But why in Heaven's name does any sensible Englishwoman want a lot of heathen to prostrate themselves as she goes up the street?" she demanded, wearily. "It's the most foolish thing I ever heard." The effort to win Miss Anthony over to the theosophical doctrine was abandoned. That night, after we had gone to our rooms, "Aunt Susan" summed up her conclusions on the interview: "It's a good thing for the world," she declared, "that some of us don't know so much. And it's a better thing for this world that some of us think a little earthly common sense is more valuable than too much
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151  
152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Besant
 

Bradlaugh

 

Anthony

 
prostrate
 
declared
 
interest
 

discover

 

surprised

 

demanded

 

ground


expostulated
 
realize
 

important

 

careful

 

making

 

position

 

school

 

learned

 

effort

 

summed


conclusions
 

abandoned

 

interview

 
common
 

valuable

 
earthly
 
doctrine
 

theosophical

 

Heaven

 

sorely


replied

 

wearily

 
foolish
 
street
 

heathen

 
Englishwoman
 

astounding

 

heaved

 

hovering

 

admitted


discouraged

 

deeper

 
revelation
 

curiously

 
visiting
 
accompanied
 

friend

 

Charles

 
emotion
 

experienced