“And yet she is always smiling.
“Does sacrifice give her joy?
“Have you never seen her at work, the angel of little sacrifices?
“On earth she is called a mother, a friend, a sister, a wife.
“In heaven she is called a saint.”
Here is another example of the familiar and easy spirit, the clearness, the practicality of this admirable little counsellor:
“What is my Cross of To-day?—It is that person whom Providence has placed near me, and whom I dislike; who humiliates me constantly by her disdainful manner; who wearies me by her slowness in the work which I share with her; who excites my jealousy because she is loved more than I and because she succeeds better than I; who irritates me by her chatter, her frivolity, or even by her attentions to me.
“It is that person who, for some vague reason, I believe to be inimical to me; who, according to my excited imagination, watches me, criticises me, ridicules me.
“She is there, always there.... My efforts to avoid her are of no avail.
“A mysterious power seems to multiply these appearances before me....