Page:The Life of Mary Baker Eddy (Wilbur).djvu/366

322 requested to file by her across the stage, and obedience to the request was enforced by the ushers. In the confusion of the reception, however, strange scenes occurred. Faithful students were startled to see Mrs. Mary H. Plunkett press forward, take Mrs. Eddy’s hand, and leaning forward, dramatically kiss her cheek. Thus she publicly associated herself with the teacher whose work she had misrepresented and whose trust she had betrayed.

Public functions and such scenes of worldly ambition had much to do with a resolve which was growing in Mrs. Eddy’s mind to withdraw entirely from public life that the adulation of her personality might cease and the truth she taught have opportunity to make its way through the work of her students.