With the sale of the house and the return to India of Norina Matchabelli and Mrs. Patterson, our little "family" was scattered, our meeting place gone. This created a problem: how was the group to continue? We all agreed that we should. Fortunately, a Mr. Alexander Markey offered his New York office for our use after business hours, on Monday, and it was there we continued to meet. It was also there we began to have our troubles, as we changed over from the exclusively one-person dominated group we had previously been. Mrs. Kyle, however capable had, after all, conducted the meetings in the home of the Princess and with her guidance. Now we were on our own. But before she had left, Princess Matchabelli had designated Dr. Bozka as the one to continue meetings and hold the group together, which she was most pleased to do. Accordingly, she was our new "reader," and she read very well. However, gradually, in her interpretations, and in answer to questions, she brought in much of her 'metaphysical' background, which, to those who are steeped in it, leans very heavily to manifestation, in the vein of Christian Science. That is, you are a very poor religious student if you do not 'manifest' good conditions — a good job, good relations with others, good health, etc. — around yourself. Whereas, in Baba's emphasis, as in the teachings of all Masters, the tremendous value of suffering and of detachment from worldly wants and desires is stressed. Some of us who had studied Meher Baba's teachings would then challenge her interpretations. Her personality was a very rigid one in this regard, possible because she actually earned her living as a ‘metaphysician’; i.e . as a healing practitioner, where her advice was paid for by those in need of it. It is also a tenet of this type of thinking never to admit failure and defeat. The result was she became angry and offended at any challenge of her interpretations. She also was not tactful to many of the 'old ones' there and offended several of them so much they left the group. Several times, she resigned as the reader; an election was spontaneously held, and I was elected as the new reader. At this time, we had moved to a studio in Carnegie Hall, for which we all chipped in a few pence, and our meetings were held to the tinkle and thump of the neighboring dance studios. Our group was still small, not over ten or twelve at most meetings. The large crowds who always came to the large public lectures of the Princess naturally did not attend these small meetings. We had no outstanding' personality,' nor capable speaker. We also had no funds to continue such large gatherings. There was no one with a home suitable or open for the old teas and intimate interviews.

Another troublesome factor for our dear Dr. Bozka was that it was I who received all the interesting mail from India and news of the activities in the ashram, and all the messages for the group from the Princess or Mrs. Patterson; naturally they wrote to me, since I had been living with them for a period of over five years. But unfortunately, perhaps, or not being able to see into the situation at a distance, they did not write so fully to Dr. Bozka. On one occasion, the Princess did write a letter to the Doctor, in her usual rather sharp admonitory style — with the most unfortunate result that Dr. Bozka believed I had written something derogatory about her to the Princess. Although this was completely unfounded, it created what was to prove an irradicable suspicion in her mind. When other people turned against her, due to her own autocratic manner, she inevitably blamed it all on me and my friend Adele Wolkin, who had also lived closely with the three women. Due to her periodic resigning — in which I was left, so to speak, holding the bag, and to these scenes and conflicts aroused in our already-small group, it almost vanished altogether. This was especially true since John Bass, our oldest and strongest member, who was of an autocratic temperament himself, usually sided with her efforts to impose her will on the group as a whole, holding out, as it were, for ‘discipline', whereas, in my opinion and that of others, the group should be a completely free association of those who loved or were interested in the Master, with no one person dominating the rest. As an example of 'discipline' which the Doctor wished to enforce on us all, the practice of meditation with both feet on the ground, back straight, hands at the sides, was advocated by her; because I continued to cross my legs or sit at ease, she again became very incensed. Mr. Bass upheld her point. I argued that everyone should be free to meditate as they wished, most particularly since the