on
with that peculiar look of absorbed attention which has so often
wrought the ruin of Platonic friendship. It entered like iron into my
parental soul, already quivering with its recent wound, and I murmured
to myself, "Oh, my prophetic soul, my second son-in-law!"

Winona too! Two years have passed since I granted her permission to
practise Christian Science, and from that time to this she has gone
regularly every day to her office to minister to the patients who have
applied to her for treatment. I am unable to state whether these have
been many or few; to be frank, I have been amazed that she has had any
at all. But I am sure that she has had some, and that she claims to
have cured several sufferers from chronic disorders whom the regular
practitioners had declared incurable. Or, more accurately, I should
say that she has demonstrated that there was nothing the matter with
them save a superabundance of error in their souls. I have learned,
too, that she has experienced some dismal failures, notably in the case
of the woman with consumption, referred to by Josephine, who, as Winona
explained to us, would have got well had she only been able to realize
that she was getting better. There was also a patient suffering from
mental derangement who grew crazier and crazier, until she was finally
carried off by her friends, whereas, as Winona sweetly explained to us,
if they had only allowed her to remain a little longer she would have
been completely cured, because in Christian Science, as in nature,
darkness is apt to be most signal just before the dawn. This diagnosis
of the case struck me as highly reasonable. Indeed, I have constantly
said to myself that, provided the dear child managed to escape
indictment, I had every reason to be contented that she was living up
to her lights to the top of her bent. So altogether you can see that
my home was a happy one, and that I desired no change.

My two sons-in-law! I see them in my mind's eye walking on either side
of me, the one short and slim with a spiritual countenance; the other
tall, handsome, and impressive-looking. Their main object in life
seems to be to help me on with my overcoat, and to guide my senile
steps over street-crossings, though Dr. Meredith tells me that I am
good for twenty years yet, and that I haven't an unsound organ in my
body. They disagree with me in politics so politely that I am fool
enough to open my best wine when they come to dinn