Page:The strange experiences of Tina Malone.djvu/17

Rh It was easy to see why she went, she did not care to "mix" vibrations. That was before I went to Chester House—I did not know then what they meant by "vibrations;" it was not a thing we talked about at home. She was a faddist about food too, not liking to eat fruit or vegetables that did not come straight from the garden. Such chastity, O Diana! Such a Puritan that she became a statue. If I spoke to her she paused and sometimes seemed to forget to answer. It could not always have been that she did not hear.

One day, when we three were together, and Naomi told a funny story, Diana laughed and told another. Turning to her for sympathy, I capped it with another. The Priestess shut up like an oyster. Naomi was walking in front at the time and I was at the Priestess' side. She made no sign that she had even heard. I spoke to Naomi of it afterwards and she said:

"Yes, I noticed that, but I think, dear, perhaps she was absent-minded."

I did not think so.

There were times when I liked her.

The first day I arrived and she showed me into my room and that beautiful view of sky and trees and harbour stretched out before us, she gave a cry of enthusiasm, "What colour! Look at the colour."

She spoke like an artist and as if seeing it for the first time—revelling in it, and drinking it in with joy.

She turned to me then and her face was aglow.

I was quiet and lonely at that minute. I could not speak.

She seemed to see just then.

"It is beautiful to think," she said quietly, "that when those we have loved have passed over, they really know us as we are. All the little misunderstandings vanish, all the little meannesses of everyday life go, and they can see and know what we are feeling."

I knew she meant that mother was not far away, and just then I thanked her in my heart, for understanding.

Perhaps it was because she was jealous of my friendship with Naomi, but we soon found that we were not congenial.

She was like a baby in her pleasure at the thought of Naomi's coming. She said she must get some new clothes, and seemed to be bustling about in her room.

But soon after Naomi's arrival she had fallen back into her old routine again. Her life was evenly parcelled out into meditations, little domestic duties, and attending her classes.

Naomi was in a difficult position. She loved Diana for