Baba left on a Sunday. Some of the goodbyes with Meredith were, to put it bluntly, frigid. It was a pity that it could not have been avoided.

And from Delia De Leon's diary we read:

We went down with him to Devonshire — the East Challacombe Retreat. It was a memorable and beautiful week for us all, and there were many already installed awaiting him. I had been used to meditating, but Baba now told us it was not necessary for us unless by his special orders. He explained that spiritual progress was not necessarily gained by leading a life of religious austerity, fasting, meditating, living in a cave. If he wished, he could give illumination to anyone in the middle of Piccadilly Circus. When he ordered fasts and austerities for special reasons, his orders should be implicitly obeyed. He said: "Many people in the East worship me as God, but what I want is love. I will take care of everything else!" He liked our Western frankness and our treating him as a friend as well as Master.

After we left East Challacombe, he said we were not to go there again unless we went with him or by his orders.

Now to continue from my diary which broke off abruptly on our return to London:

We returned to late tea on Sunday night, April 24th. The boys had gone to Stephanie's. Stephanie rang up at once inviting Baba and all of us to go over that evening for a meal, or the next day, and she would make Baba a special Indian curry. The boys at Stephanie's knew how well she cooked and were persuading Baba to go, and he said that he would. Then I had to explain to Baba the little surprise which I had arranged with the Anglo-Indian restaurant in Gerrard's Street (where Baba had previously taken us all to dinner), to send in food for Baba and the boys and prepare it for them here in the kitchen. When Baba heard this, he changed his "Yes" into "No" and was delighted at the prospect of real Indian dishes. This plan worked very well for both lunch and dinner for the three days were there I have since learned that this restaurant was run by two students from India who were studying in London. They started this restaurant to enable them to pay their expenses while studying, and later sold it. Both were very much interested in Baba.

On the Sunday evening of our return, much took place. Desmond, Kim's husband, came over from the christening of a small nephew at St. Margaret's Westminster. I see him now — coming up the road slowly with stick and top-hat. He was coming on a rather delicate matter — that of deciding whether Kim should come with us or not to Lugano on the following Wednesday. Baba asked him to call at six. Baba kept him waiting about ten minutes. The interview was satisfactory and Desmond agreed to let Kim go. Baba said she would learn much and return to him with a fuller sense of responsibility for her home duties and