His most advanced disciples were to hold themselves in
readiness to renounce their former vows and seek "spiritual
consorts," sometimes according to his advice, sometimes as their
inclinations prompted.
Had Aaron Boynton forsaken, willingly, the wife of his youth, the
mother of his boy? If so, he must have realized to what straits
he was subjecting them. Ivory had not forgotten those first few
years of grinding poverty, anxiety, and suspense. His mother's
mind had stood the strain bravely, but it gave way at last; not,
however, until that fatal winter journey to New Hampshire, when
cold, exposure, and fatigue did their worst for her weak body.
Religious enthusiast, exalted and impressionable, a natural
mystic, she had probably always been, far more so in temperament,
indeed, than her husband; but although she left home on that
journey a frail and heartsick woman, she returned a different
creature altogether, blurred and confused in mind, with clouded
memory and irrational fancies.
She must have given up hope, just then, Ivory thought, and her
love was so deep that when it was uprooted the soil came with it.
Now hope had returned because the cruel memory had faded
altogether. She sat by the kitchen window in gentle expectation,
watching, always watching.
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