I am glad to know that the union which has been so long uncertain is at last secured. I have no doubt that all the conditions of happiness will be found in it, if only health can be added to them.
The lime of papa's journey is drawing near. From a distance it is difficult to judge his course correctly; the moment itself must have arrived before one can appreciate it truly.
I am trying to find out at this moment what I may count upon in the future for the accomplishment of my dearest hopes.
The last sentences in this letter refer to Guérin's marriage with Mlle. de Gervain, which is so fully described in Eugénie's letters from Paris that it needs no comment here. Then followed a few months of tranquil success, a lingering illness at Le Cayla, a happy death-bed; and our story ends, as all true stories must end, in a graveyard. By the gateway of that old cemetery of Andillac, where Eugénie sunned herself one day sitting on a tombstone, while waiting for her turn to go to confession, is a white marble obelisk surmounted by a cross. Caroline placed it there as her last gift to her husband, and it bears these words:
Here rests my friend
Who was my husband
Only eight months. Farewell.
Pierre George Maurice
De Guérin du Cayla.
Born August 4th, 1810,
Died at Le Cayla
July 19th, 1839.
Close by stands the little church whose chief ornament is a delicately wrought statue of the Blessed Virgin, presented by Queen Marie Amélie at Eugénie's petition. The belfry is crumbling to decay, and the tottering porch under which the dove of Le Cayla passed so often appeals pitifully to those who have a zeal for the preservation of God's house.
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A record has been made of Eugénie's daily life by one who had hourly opportunities of watching her actions, and we cannot refrain from laying it before our readers. Nothing concerning the sister of Maurice can be inappropriate in an article devoted to him, and it will be well to see how holy and regular a life may be led in the world without singularity or narrowness.
"She rose at six in the morning when she was not ill. After dressing she made a vocal or mental prayer, and never failed when she was in a town to hear mass at the nearest altar. At Le Cayla, after saying her morning prayer, she went into her father's room, either to wait upon him, or to carry his breakfast in and read to him while he took it. At nine o'clock she went back to her room and followed mass spiritually. If her father was well and did not need her assistance, she occupied herself with reading and writing or with sewing, of which she was very fond (fairy in hands as she was in soul); or in superintending the household, which she directed with exquisite taste and intelligence. At noon she went to her room and said the Angelus; then came dinner. When it was over, if the weather was good, she took a walk with her father, or sometimes made a visit in a village if there was any invalid to see or any afflicted person to console. If she resumed reading on her return, she took up her knitting also and knitted while she read, not admitting even the shadow of idle hours. At three she went to her room, where she generally read the Visit to the Blessed Sacrament by St. Alphonsus Liguori, or the life of that day's saint. This ended, she wrote until five o'clock if her father did not call her to be with him. At five she said her rosary and meditated until supper time. At seven she talked with the rest of the family, but never left off working. After supper she went into the kitchen for evening prayers with the servants or to teach the catechism to some little ignorant child, as often happened during the vineyard times. The rest of the evening passed in working, and at ten o'clock she went to bed, after reading the subject of meditation for the next day, in order to sleep upon some good thought. And, finally, it should be added that every month she prepared herself for death and chose some saint whom she loved best that she might imitate his virtues. Every week she went to communion, and even oftener during the last years of her life, when her failing health would allow her to go to the church, which was at some distance from Le Cayla."