IN THE MOUNTAINS.
One afternoon Penloe was expected to take supper with the Wheelwrights.
He had had a standing invitation for some time, but for certain reasons
had not accepted it till now. The last time he saw Stella, he said: "If
it will be agreeable to you all, I will take supper at your house next
Tuesday evening." They were all in high spirits at the thought of his
coming, for a more agreeable, interesting, and intelligent visitor could
not be found.
What little time there was between the time of his arrival and supper,
he kept them laughing by relating some very interesting experiences.
At the supper table he was given the seat of honor, Mrs. Wheelwright
being on his right and Stella on his left. Stella had on a fine, white
dress, with white satin ribbon at the neck and sleeves, and, as her
complexion was dark and her hair jet black, it became her exceedingly
well. There are some young ladies who need to have very fine dresses to
make them at all presentable; they are so dependent on the style of the
dress for giving them a good form and fine appearance, but it was not so
with Stella. Her fine form and graceful movements would make any dress
look well; she set off the dress. The table was laid with a snowy-white
damask tablecloth, moss-rose pattern, with napkins to match. Also a
moss-rose tea set. The table did not groan with a lot of heavy, greasy
food; no, there was very fine bread, good sweet butter, nectarine sauce
and blackberry jelly, cake, pineapple sherbet, vanilla ice-cream, milk,
weak tea, and some sweetmeats, and nuts.
The meal was eaten very leisurely, for the conversation was very
interesting, all taking part in it. Penloe had that rare gift of a good
conversationalist, being able to make others talk their best instead of
doing all the talking himself. Stella and Penloe were both good at
repartee. The ladies talked more than Penloe, and there seemed to be a
real genuine feeling, as if one spirit pervaded them all.
After supper, Mr. Wheelwright had an opportunity of talking to Penloe,
on the porch, about subjects that he was most interested in, while the
ladies washed the dishes. Later on, the ladies joined them, and a most
agreeable evening was spent. Mr. and Mrs. Wheelwright excused themselves
when their regular time for retiring came, and as it was such a lovely
moonlight evening, Stella invited Penloe to keep her company on the
porch, saying, "The evening is so beautiful." Yes, it was beautiful. It
was one of those matchless evenings in California that must be seen and
enjoyed to be fully appreciated, and by a soul in touch with the
sublime. To realize the grandeur of the sky, with its clear atmosphere,
on those fine evenings, is to experience one of the richest joys of
existence. Language is inadequate to describe such beauty.
The two souls on the porch were in touch with the Divine, which
manifested Itself in all these glories, and they were drinking it in to
their fullest capacity. They had sat in silence for a while, when Penloe
said: "Stella, I have not had anything that has given me more
satisfaction, or that has pleased me more, and given me encouragement in
my work, so much as the courageous spirit manifested by you on the day
that you in a public way freed yourself from bondage. You taught the
people a lesson they will never forget. That was a grand act, Stella,
and you built into your character on that day qualities which will stand
all trials and temptations; you made a good karma for yourself. Think
how your act has helped others out of bondage."
Stella said: "Penloe, it gives me pleasure to hear your approval of what
I have done. But is it not only the fruits of your own work, after all?
Did you not take Stella, a green, ignorant girl as she was, and lead her
to her freedom?"
Penloe said: "Yes, Stella, I did one kind of work, and you did another;
my work was easy compared to yours. I instructed you, but it was you who
put the instruction in practice, and that counts."
"Penloe," said Stella, taking his hand in hers, "I realize that fully,
for no one but you could have taught me as you did. No one but you could
have given me the light and knowledge I so much needed, no one but you
could help me open the door which led me into the spiritual world, and
when I entered that world, you were there as my spiritual companion.
"Penloe, you have been my very dear social companion, you have been my
very dear intellectual companion, and you have been my very dear
spiritual companion. Your companionship has been that of the truest
friendship, for your every act and thought has been to raise me up to a
higher plane, and I would not be true to my highest and best nature if I
did not tell you that I love you as I can love no other man. You
possessed my heart long before to-night. Do you love Stella, Penloe, and
do you want her to be your life companion, to help you in your noble
work, to love you, and to live the Divine life with you?"
Penloe said: "Stella, dear, what I have done for you I would do for any
one; but darling, I love you intensely. Yes, dear one, your love to me
is bliss, and there is no one whose companionship I love and enjoy more
than yours, dear Stella, for I see so much of the Divine manifested in
you." And here Penloe took the dear girl to him, and they were both lost
in bliss.
I looked at the moon just then in its silvery brightness, and as it
looked down on that hallowed scene it sent forth such a glow of light as
illuminated the whole heavens and earth. I looked at the planets
witnessing that blissful scene. They were more brilliant than ever, and
vied with each other in sending forth their bright lights. I looked at
the whole canopy of the heavens and, just as the two embraced, an
unusual number of stars of the first magnitude appeared and the whole
sky was decked with millions of fiery worlds. And why should the
heavens not be brilliant on an occasion when the love in two divine ones
is plighted?
Their little whisperings at intervals during the silence, which they are
enjoying, are too sacred to record here; and while they are in that
exceedingly blissful state of mind the thought came to me to note the
nature of kisses. There is the cold kiss, which upon receiving one
wishes he had not been kissed. Then there is the average common kiss.
Then there is the kiss of friendship. Then there is the ordinary love
kiss. Then there is the warm, passionate kiss. But superior to them all
is the pure, spiritual kiss, so intensely sweet, but so very, very rare.
To give such a kiss, and even to enjoy receiving it, one must have a
very high quality of organism. The cells of the brain, the blood which
flows through the arteries and veins, the tissues of the whole body must
have been formed and built up by that all powerful agent, thought. And
that thought must be of the highest order; it must have emptied itself
of all but love, that love which takes in all, and from that thought and
life comes the manifestation of harmony, purity, sweetness, truth and
love. Blessed, thrice blessed indeed, is such a person.
When two persons of that type of character come together in love, giving
each other through kisses, the expression of their affection, that
kissing is bliss indeed.
After the silence and whisperings of deep love thoughts were over,
Stella with her face looking so beautiful, being flushed from the
realization of her love, said: "Penloe, dear, I knew that you were
different from most men in not being dependent on the love of a woman
for your happiness; for you had within you a deep well of living water
from whence came all your joy, and you drank deep draughts from it
daily. Yes, dear, I knew your thoughts, your hopes, your happiness was
centered in that Blessed Infinite One and He was the source of your
peace, your joy and your love. Though I loved you so much, the question
arose in my mind whether you needed my love and companionship."
Penloe said: "Stella, darling, it is all true, what you say about my
living in the Eternal One, and that from Him springs all my strength, my
hope and my love; but if that Blessed Infinite One brings another joy to
me in the form of dear Stella's love, why should I not accept it gladly?
Yes, dear, your interesting self, your love is all a gift to me from the
Infinite Spirit. It is an additional joy and pleasure which He has
bestowed upon me, and my prayer is that I may always and fully meet your
expectations, and my self and my love may give you as much joy as yours
gives me."
Stella said: "Penloe, dear, my cup is full to overflowing; how good God
is to me."
Penloe said: "Stella, darling, I wish to express a thought concerning
love, and it is this. Many times you see two persons in love, and
instead of that experience broadening and intensifying their love and
sympathies, it has a tendency to narrow them down and contract them and
bring them to a very small selfish life, causing them to take no thought
or interest in any one but themselves. They seem to form a mutual
admiration society, and live to gain the praise of each other. After
all, when you analyze them, it is not so much love of each other as it
appears to be, but love of each one for himself. Then there is that kind
of love union which exists between two where, instead of narrowing and
contracting the lovers, it has a tendency to broaden them out in their
love, and make their sympathies universal in their scope; their love
being of that high order which seems to quicken all that is grand and
noble in their natures; and their lives seem to be those of intense love
for each other, and intense love for the Lord in His humanity."
Then they sat in blissful silence for a little while, when Penloe said:
"Stella, darling, have you thought over what you may have to give up
through becoming a life companion to me? Of course, dear, you know I
have consecrated my life and my endeavors as a free will offering to the
world, and it is not my work nor mission to raise a family. Now, the
instinct to become a mother is very strong in some women's natures."
Stella said: "Why, Penloe, dear, I do not have to give up anything in
becoming a life companion to you, for instead of being a material mother
I will become a spiritual mother to many, which is a far higher joy, and
the world has too few spiritual mothers, but too many material ones of a
low grade."
Penloe said: "Have you thought over the practical side of our union? You
see, I am not a man that is rustling for dollars from morning till
night, and in my life and work we may, at times perhaps, only have a log
cabin to live in, with bare walls and floors; and our food may be of the
plainest kind, and not much of that either. Your wardrobe may consist of
only one cotton wrapper and flour-sack underwear."
Penloe could not say any more, for Stella put her hand over his mouth
and said, laughingly: "You cannot scare me so easily, for it will take
more than only having in my possession one cotton wrapper and wearing
flour-sack underwear, and living in a log cabin with bare walls and
floors, to discourage me. Those things are not of my world; all I hope
is that if I shall have to put on such garments as flour-sack underwear,
it will not offend your artistic eye."
They both had a good laugh, for they feared nothing in this Universe;
least of all that great bugaboo, poverty.
Penloe said: "Well, Stella, to be serious, I have made arrangements for
leaving Orangeville for six months. In about a week's time I will go up
into the mountains and live in a log cabin in the pines. I will be six
miles from any human being, and twenty-five miles from Orangeville. It
is necessary that I should be away for awhile from all psychological
influences and cross-currents, and live in the silence. I realize that I
need it to fit me for my work. It is necessary for my spiritual
unfoldment. Christ went up into the mountains and out on the plains to
be alone, so he might gain spiritual strength. All great spiritual
teachers have times for being alone. As I said, I need to make this
change to fit me for my work, for I want to get my mind freed from all
individuality and relativity, so as to see more clearly the Oneness
throughout the Universe. For, as the Swami Vivekananda has said in his
lecture on 'Maya and the Evolution of the Conception of God': 'He who
sees in this world of manifoldness that One running through it all; in
this world of death, he who finds that one infinite life; and in this
world of insentience and ignorance, he who finds that one light and
knowledge, unto him belongs eternal peace.' It is more of that light and
knowledge that I need, Stella. In short, it is to commune more with the
Father; it is to realize in a greater degree the presence of the Divine
within, and to have my mind freed from the illusion of the phenomenal
world; for by so doing I become qualified to become a healer of disease,
and also fitted to help many a poor sin-sick life. Now, Stella, having
clearly made known my purpose to you; I want to tell you that it is
better for you that I leave this time. It will enlighten you more
spiritually in this way. Most persons would think that it should be the
greatest pleasure to us both to be together now as much as we can, so as
to see and enjoy the society of each other. That thought is all right
for the many, but not for you and me. It is better for us both that we
do not hear from one another for three months, and at the end of that
time I want you to come up and live three months with me in that cabin.
At the end of that time we will come back to the world and be made man
and wife in the eyes of the law.
"All this to some may seem strange and hard, but not to you, Stella, for
I think you have already attained to that plane where you can see the
great good to you which will come from following such a course. If you
follow certain instructions which I will give you, after we have been
separated two weeks, you will have a feeling of my presence with you,
and you will not feel the need of correspondence, for we will be
independent of all letter writing, because we can be in communion with
each other at any time we may wish it."
Stella said: "Through you, dear, I have attained to that plane where I
can see it all true what you have said and all for the best; and,
Penloe, dear, Stella will be with you in your cabin at the end of the
first three months," and here she kissed him and he returned the same.
After a little more talk they bid each other farewell.
The next morning after the most eventful evening in Stella's life, when
that young lady kissed her mother good-morning, Mrs. Wheelwright did not
need to be told what had happened on the previous night, for the way
Stella kissed her mother, and the way she moved about to get breakfast
made Mrs. Wheelwright smile inwardly. Just as the three were about
finishing their morning meal, Stella told her parents all that had
happened. They were both delighted in the extreme and Stella received
their blessings and kisses.
Mrs. Wheelwright said to Stella: "I am so glad you found a man worthy of
your love, and he certainly is. I could not have made one to order to
suit you as well. All I feared was that he would live without a wife,
because I knew how much you loved him, and no one else would ever fill
his place in your affections. I rejoice daily that we have such a dear
daughter; one that Penloe has seen fit to love and cherish as a life
companion."
"Mother," said Stella, "there is no such thing as disappointment in love
to those who are living on the plane that Penloe and I are on, for we
are led by the promptings of the Blessed Infinite One, to each other."
Mrs. Wheelwright said: "Oh, if more would only live on the spiritual
plane, how much happier they would be in all that pertains to this
life."
Stella said: "I am going to write to aunt to-day and tell her of my
engagement to Penloe." So later in the day she sat down and wrote the
following letter:
"MY DEAR AUNT: As you have always taken so much
interest in my future happiness, I think it no more
than right that I should inform you of my engagement to
Penloe. Yes, dear Aunt, I proposed to him last evening
and he accepted me and has given me his love in return.
"Let me thank you, dear Aunt, for your kindness to me,
and I hope that our being engaged may meet with your
approval. Penloe is going to live in the pines for the
next six months. After he has been there three months I
am going up there to live with him, and will be his
log-cabin companion for three months. After that we
will be united in marriage.
"Mother and father join me in love to you. As ever,
"Your Affect. Niece,
"STELLA WHEELWRIGHT."
From that time till Stella went to the mountains to live with Penloe,
she was busy in two ways. Her time was occupied in one direction in
writing a little book on the sex question. Barker and Brookes told her
if she would write the book they would pay for having it printed and
would circulate thousands of copies free. Those two young men were now
Stella's co-workers in the grand field of removing bondage. The other
way in which Stella was very busy was in following a certain course of
mental and spiritual exercise as marked out for her by Penloe.
When the three months had expired, Mr. Wheelwright took Stella up to the
pines within one mile of Penloe's cabin. They arrived there at four in
the afternoon. Stella told her father to satisfy him that she would go
up to Penloe's cabin, and then come right back and stay with him over
night, and in the morning after he was gone Penloe would come down and
take her and her valise up with him.
Her father not being sure about the mental telegraphy carried on
between Stella and Penloe, wanted to make sure Penloe was there and all
right before he left his daughter.
It was Penloe's wish for no person to come near his cabin except Stella.
When Stella returned to her father, after having gone up to Penloe's
cabin to see if he was all right, she told her father Penloe was well,
and he could see by his daughter's face that everything was all right.
On the next morning Mr. Wheelwright wished his daughter good-bye,
leaving her where they had camped over night.
A few minutes afterwards Penloe appeared, and taking Stella's valise
they both walked up to the cabin. Stella was perfectly charmed with the
beautiful spot where the cabin was located. Some large pines were in
front of the cabin and some very handsome redwoods a few rods in the
rear. A sparkling, rippling brook flowed near the cabin, singing merrily
as it went along.
They lived on two meals a day and found that was all the nourishment
they needed, as they were doing no manual labor, and there was no great
strain on their nervous system.
They spent their time in the following manner: Part of the day was
devoted to prayer, meditation and concentration, and part of the time in
the practise of mental telegraphy; and the balance of the time in doing
what little work there was to do and in walks and talks.
Stella did enjoy the life so very much, and she was rapidly advancing
physically, intellectually and spiritually. As for lonesomeness, she and
Penloe did not know what that was, their minds being too active to be
lonesome. They seemed to be new to each other every morning and fresh
every evening, their life being a perfect joy and delight in its highest
sense; for they realized each day more and more of their Divine natures.
Each day they came in touch with the Infinite, and when they came down
from the mountain their faces shone as Moses' did of old; for they had
walked and talked with God.