A Guest Room Fit for the Master

Rúhíyyih Khánum explains that:

When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá consented to come to Montreal [in 1912] and arrangements were being made, my father [he wasn’t a Bahá’í then] explained to Mother that though He would of course be their guest, he did not want to have the Master in his home but would engage a suite for Him at the Windsor Hotel. All his sensitive Scots reticence shrank from the publicity and limelight that would be thrown on him as the host of such an attention-attracting guest as the Persian Prophet and His entourage would constitute. Mother was heartbroken, but she did not remonstrate, realizing perhaps that such things cannot be debated but must arise from the heart. The day before the scheduled arrival of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, my father rushed into Mother's room, the largest bedroom, facing the garden and possessing three bay windows, and looking critically at her furniture declared: 'This is not good enough for ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, I'm going right down to Morgans to buy a new set', and rushed off and immediately purchased and had delivered a bed, dressing table and chairs in white-painted Louis XV style. One can only imagine how great was her joy that her husband of his own accord should have felt the longing to have the Master under his own roof. He himself met the Master at the train and begged Him to accept the hospitality of his home.

(Adapted from The Maxwells of Montreal, vol. 1, by Violette Nakhjavani)

Source: Rúhíyyih Khánum, as quoted in Violette Nakhjavani, The Maxwells of Montreal, vol. 1 (George Ronald, 2011); also told in Earl Redman, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Their Midst, p. 181; as posted on the Baha'i Stories Blog (https://bahaistories.blogspot.com/2015/08/abdul-bahas-visit-to-montreal-maxwell.html).

Various. *Baha'i Stories Blog*. https://bahaistories.blogspot.com/2015/08/abdul-bahas-visit-to-montreal-maxwell.html