Page:The Life of Mary Baker Eddy (Wilbur).djvu/445

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

CHAPTER XXIII

LIFT UP THY GATES

OF Mrs. Eddy’s daily life it is no longer possible to speak in the present tense as it was happily one’s privilege to do at the time of writing the chapter of this book, “The Leader in Retirement.” Mrs. Eddy has since then passed beyond the veil which an all-wise Providence wraps around our period of mortal living, sheltering His children from the burden of a too great knowledge and the splendor of a too glorious vision. Her acts are no longer subject to mortal inspection. But of the time intervening between January 26, 1908, when she took up her residence at Chestnut Hill, and that evening of December 3, 1910, when she gently and silently withdrew from the theatre of the world’s activity, a period of nearly three years, it is possible to speak briefly and simply.

Her suite of rooms at Chestnut Hill had been arranged almost exactly like the rooms she used at Pleasant View, save for the fact that in this larger house she retained for herself a private sitting-room beside her study. The suite was in the southeast corner of the mansion and was therefore sunny, and commanded a view of Brookline reservoir, adjacent well kept estates on the Old Orchard road, and a distant view of the Blue Hills.