Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/470

414 which since she left Boston she had ceased to colour, and which was now soft and white. They used to talk among themselves about her "final demonstration" in those days, the idea being that she was husbanding her strength to perform some one final wonder which would convince the world. Sometimes, in their fireside speculations, they encouraged one another in the hope that, when the time came, Mrs. Eddy would even demonstrate over death. They seem to have expected that this last triumph would come, not as a mere prolongation of life, but as a sort of definite combat, a struggle from which she would rise transfigured. While Mrs. Eddy's triumph over death was never an openly avowed belief of the church, it was the fearful hope of many a devoted creature. These credulous and fervent souls used to go upon pilgrimages to Concord, see the venerable Mother through their tears when she addressed them briefly from her balcony, and go away saying that she had the figure of a girl, that her face was as full and smooth as the face of a young woman.

As soon as Mrs. Eddy withdrew from secular life and became inaccessible to the majority of her followers, legends began to grow up about her. She realised this well enough, and, at her request, her adopted son bought a notebook and set down in it some of her wonderful sayings and doings. One of the