[wood] an URSULINE EPIC 8 



first words she could articulate were Marie and Jésus; she had hardly 

 learnt to read before she showed a marked preference for books of edifi- 

 cation; her favourite work was succouring the poor; her favourite 

 amusement was " playing nun ;" and her favourite holiday was paying 

 a visit to the Benedictine abbey of Beaumont, where the abbess was her 

 mother's cousin. Her first vision was in a dream, when, as she after- 

 wards wrote, she saw Heaven open and Christ come toward her in human 

 form : Ce plus heau des enfants des hommes, avec un visage plein d'une 

 douceur et d'un attrait indicibles, m' embrassa, et, me baisant amoureuse- 

 ment, me dit : "" Voulez-vous être à moi ?" Je lui répondis : " Oui;" 

 et, ayant eu mon consentement, nous le vîmes remonter au ciel. 



No wonder that a child like this longed for the life of the Bene- 

 dictines whom she saw so often and who were so kind to her; nor tjiat 

 her cousin willingly promised to intercede with Madame de Beaumont for 

 her future admission to the order. She then confided in her mother, 

 who also encouraged her. But there the matter stopped. She was 

 meditative, timid and reserved ; and it never occurred to her to open her 

 mind in the confessional beyond what she thought a penitent should say 

 there! She knew nothing of private spiritual directors, who would cer- 

 tainly have led her on. So the Benedictines lost a nun, to Canada's 

 great advantage. 



When she was seventeen her parents wished her to marry a silk manu- 

 facturer, almost as pious as her father. Her answer was idiosyncratic 

 to the last degree. Ma mère, puisque c'esti une résolution prise et que 

 mon père le veut absolument, je me crois obligée d'obéir à sa volonté et 

 à la vôtre. Mais si Dieu me fait la grâce de me donner un fils, je lui 

 promets, dès à présent, de le consacrer à son service; et si, ensuite, il 

 me rend la liberté que je vais perdre,, je lui promets de m'y consacrer 

 moi-même. Both vows were afterwards fulfilled. 



Nevertheless, her marriage was a happy one. Madame Martin, as 

 «he had now become, was a very practical mystic, and a most capable 

 partner in her husband's business. At the same time she lost no oppor- 

 tunity of shepherding his employees into the one true fold and making 

 them her daily congregation. Doubtless, her pilgrim soul was often 

 grieved by their stay-at-home contentment with the good green earth of 

 rich, Touraine, where many a Mimneimus probably went to church, even 

 in those ardent daj^s, when religion was a casus belli for the whole of 

 Europe. 



At nineteen she was left a penniless widow by her husband's sudden 

 death and failure. Tall, handsome and of commanding presence, cap- 

 able in management and pious in every thought and deed, she had no 

 lack of eligible suitors. But ehe would never consider re-marriage for 



