ose troubles were of the heart, the
loss of money, the enmity of rivals, or the dangers of childbirth. The
Christian Science practitioner declared all to be divine
mind--omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient good, and that evil could not
exist in it--only the illusion of it. "It is real enough to those who
give it their faith and believe," said the counselor, "but without
substance or meaning to those who know themselves to be a perfect,
indestructible reflection of an idea in God. God is a principle. When
the nature of that principle is realized and yourself as a part of it,
evil falls away as the troublesome dream that it is. It has no reality."
She assured her that no evil could befall her in the true understanding
of Science. God is love.

The lawyer told her, after listening to a heated story of Eugene's
misconduct, that under the laws of the State of New York, in which these
misdeeds were committed, she was not entitled to anything more than a
very small fraction of her husband's estate, if he had any. Two years
was the shortest time in which a divorce could be secured. He would
advise her to sue if she could establish a suitable condition of
affluence on Eugene's part, not otherwise. Then he charged her
twenty-five dollars for this advice.

CHAPTER XXIV

To those who have followed a routine or system of living in this
world--who have, by slow degrees and persistent effort, built up a
series of habits, tastes, refinements, emotions and methods of conduct,
and have, in addition, achieved a certain distinction and position, so
that they have said to one "Go!" and he goes, and to another "Come!" and
he comes, who have enjoyed without stint or reserve, let or hindrance,
those joys of perfect freedom of action, and that ease and deliberation
which comes with the presence of comparative wealth, social position,
and comforts, the narrowing that comes with the lack of means, the fear
of public opinion, or the shame of public disclosure, is one of the most
pathetic, discouraging and terrifying things that can be imagined. These
are the hours that try men's souls. The man who sits in a seat of the
mighty and observes a world that is ruled by a superior power, a
superior force of which he by some miraculous generosity of fate has
been chosen apparently as a glittering instrument, has no conception of
the feelings of the man who, cast out of his dignities and emoluments,
sits in the dark places of the world among the