Page:The Life of Mary Baker Eddy (Wilbur).djvu/305

Rh has existed in every home she has made; but those who have described the room speak of it as a place where one breathed the atmosphere of graciousness expressed in rare simplicity.

In this room Mrs. Clara Choate was received by Mrs. Eddy in January, 1878. She was one of Mrs. Eddy’s devoted students during that troublous time, and her description of the home life shows that Mrs. Eddy was not overwhelmed by her difficulties, but calm and resolute. She also tells of a certain buoyancy and gaiety which at times characterized Mrs. Eddy, a gaiety which caused her to rally her students to cheerfulness and mirth, as she later rallied the lawyers and journalists who assembled with awe-struck countenances to catechize her on the rationality of her mind.

Mrs. Choate, whose husband belonged to the family which has given so many distinguished publicists to the American nation, and who was herself related to the Blaines, was an early reader of “Science and Health.” She secured a copy of the first edition and read it with wonder and delight, but she did not immediately become a Christian Scientist. Having sent from her home in Salem for a practitioner and having been greatly benefited in health, she determined to meet the author of the book and study its doctrine at first hand. She accordingly came to Lynn. When she was shown into the little gray-walled parlor, she looked about in some wonderment. Expecting to find austerity, she was surprised to behold harmony, beauty, and sunshine. Yet this presently appeared the natural