appreciate the beautiful character of my friends, their crystal purity
of heart and the religion they professed. Far back in the old days I had
heard, first and last, a great deal about sweetness and light and
Philistines, and not quite knowing what this grand question was all
about, and hearing from some of my friends that I was without the
qualities they valued most, I thereafter proclaimed myself a Philistine,
and was satisfied to have the controversy ended in that way, so far as
it concerned me personally. Now, however, I was like one to whom some
important thing has been told, who, scarcely hearing and straightway
forgetting, goes about his affairs; but, lying awake at night in the
silence of his chamber, recalls the unheeded words and perceives their
full significance. My sojourn with this people--angelic women and
mild-eyed men with downy, unrazored lips, so mild in manner yet in their
arts "laying broad bases for eternity"--above all the invalid hours
spent daily in the Mother's Room, had taught me how unlovely a creature
I had been. It would have been strange indeed if, in such an atmosphere,
I had not absorbed a little sweetness and light into my system.

In this sweet refuge--this slumberous valley where I had been cast up by
that swift black current that had borne me to an immeasurable distance
on its bosom, and with such a change going on within me--I sometimes
thought that a little more and I would touch that serene, enduring bliss
which seemed to be the normal condition of my fellow-inmates. My passion
for Yoletta now burned with a gentle flame, which did not consume, but
only imparted an agreeable sense of warmth to the system. When she was
there, sitting with me at her mother's feet, sometimes so near that her
dark, shining hair brushed against my cheek, and her fragrant breath
came on my face; and when she caressed my hand, and gazed full at me
with those dear eyes that had no shadow of regret or anxiety in them,
but only unfathomable love, I could imagine that our union was already