For here we must pause and explain how our one-time Typewriter was now become an Advanced Thinker.
The tragic love of Alonzo Leffingwell and his disappearance from Kankakee had made an indelible impression on the woman who rejected him.
From this time forward she became curious about "Occultism."
Her marriage afforded the time and means necessary for the development of her Higher Self--about which so many ladies were now talking.
Presently she was as familiar with "Mysticism" as other members of the New Thought Club.
As time went on she enjoyed an ever extending acquaintance with the numerous and high-priced "Professors" and Specialists in Higher Lines of business.
While Bill was busy in the drug store, or looking after his political fences, the charming Imogene was brushing up on her "Subliminal Self" and learning how to "Wake the Plexus."
Gradually Mrs. Vanderhook saturated her daily life with studies of the occult, adorned herself with mystic symbols, and prepared "papers" for the Club, on unintelligible subjects.
The Occidental woman who "aspires" does nothing by halves. Whatever her goal of attainment, she conforms her activities to that end, dedicates her energies to that ambition, and colors every duty with that Aspiration.
In this wise Imogene converted all of her entertainments and indulgences into expressions of the Universal, and made every day in the week a separate exercise for Self-Development.
To the Western Woman has been left the co-ordination of "Everything--I--WANT--TO--DO" with "Everything--I--ASPIRE--TO--BE."
Mondays Mrs. Vanderhook devoted to Rhythmic Vibrations under the name of Physical Culture. Mornings she spent with an Advanced Athlete, rounding up with a contest at the Ladies' Club Gym, and closing her day with a session at the Chicago Bargain Counters. This day of the week she devoted to swinging and swaying and climbing and bending and twisting and kicking and pushing and pulling, that she might develop the "Body Beautiful" in harmony with her "Higher Self."
She never missed a Monday--in the field--for like most practical occultists of the Occident, she tended to overweight, and for this reason took kindly to the suggestion that reduction of the Surplus meant increase of illumination.