Then again, Bill had experienced a sense of loneliness at times, when he would come in with a toothache or a touch of gastritis, to be assured that it was all in his Mortal Mind, and that what he supposed was Pain was but an "error" and instead of the earlier coddling to receive but a calm, vague, unsympathetic glance and a frosty little smile of one who "Functioned in the Realities."
But these were all mere incidents, and the still devoted husband went on earning dollars for his Imogene Silesia to "radiate."
Thus it was that the Mayor's wife had been drawn into the rage for "Occultism" and the current "Uplift," without his knowledge or consent, and by "Holding a Thought" or two and by means of fifty-seven Varieties of Unfoldment, had gradually unfitted herself fully to share her husband's ambitions and tastes, which still centered in the Drug Store, the Lighting Plant and Politics.
Thus, unknown to him and scarcely apprehended by herself, the fair Imogene was preparing for a Change. This was why the Appearance of Alonzo, the Wise Man, had not disturbed her more, and why she so quickly accepted him as a matter of course and adjusted herself to Orientalisms.
But now that her perceptions were sharpened, the lady could not but perceive the primordial relation between herself and the once despised Mystic. She also was forced to cognize the enormous advantage of astral attainments over physical conditions and physical powers. She began to draw odious comparisons and invidious distinctions between her lawful master and her extra-lawful mate.
"Fool, and blind,"--she now murmured, from time to time, in just the same tone and with the same wild, back-handed gesture she had seen at the Chicago Opera House.
And the Gnani, day by day, murmured to _his_ Higher Self,--"She is advancing beautifully." He noted the sweet trustfulness with which she now leaned upon him--that is, philosophically speaking.
"She now Aspires from choice"--he would whisper to himself again and again. "She will lop off several reincarnations, while I--aha! ha ha!"--and his gaseous form would undulate with ethereal ecstasy.
In that astral realm where thoughts are things and business is transacted by mental checks, the inhabitants have distinct advantages over mere human beings who are circumscribed by purveyors of goods and settlements on a cash basis.
