les, and I see no reason for specifying
them here. I merely add: in whosoever it is found it is an evil, in
a superior it is a plague spot....

"An excellent remedy is to be together only at those times enjoined
by the rule, on other occasions to refrain from speech, as is now
our custom, and to live separately each in her cell as the rule
ordains. And, although it be a praiseworthy custom to unite for
work in a community room, I desire that the nuns of the convent of
St. Joseph shall be freed from this custom, for it is much easier
to keep silence if each works in her cell. Moreover, it is of the
first importance to accustom oneself to solitude, in order to
advance oneself in prayer; and as prayer should be the mortar of
this monastery, we should cherish all that which increases the
spirit in us."

Glancing down the pages, her eyes were arrested by a passage of even
more subtle, more penetrating wisdom.

"Would you know a certain sign, my daughters, by which you may
judge of your progress in virtue? Let each one look within herself
and discover if she believes herself to be the unworthiest of you
all, and if for the benefit of the others she makes it visible by
her actions that she really thinks that this is so, that is the
certain sign of spiritual advancement, and not delight in prayer,
nor ravishment, nor visions, and such like favours which God grants
to souls when he is so pleased. We shall only know the value of
such favours in the next world. It is not so with
humility--humility is a money which is always current, it is safely
invested capital, a perpetual income; but extraordinary favours are
money which is lent for a time and may at any moment be called in.
I repeat, our true treasure is profound humility, great
mortification, and an obedience which, seeing God in the superior,
submits to his every order."

The saint's delicate yet virile perception, and her power of expressing
the shadowy and evanescent, filled Evelyn with admiration; and the saint
appeared to her in the light of a great novelist; she wondered if Balzac
had ever read these pages.

"The best remedy, in my opinion, that a nun can employ to conquer
the imperfect affection which she still bears her parents, is to
abstain from seeing them until by patient prayer she has obtained
f