Our dear Father makes his presence felt in a way which touches me deeply.  After a death lasting for five long years, what joy to find him as he used to be, nay, more a father than ever!  How well he is going to repay you for the care you so generously bestowed on him!  You were his Angel, now he will be yours.  He has only been one month in heaven, and already, through the power of his intercession, all your plans are succeeding.  It is easy for him now to arrange matters for us, and he has had less to suffer on Celine’s account than he had for his poor little Queen.

For a long time you have been asking me for news about the noviciate, especially about my work, and now I am going to satisfy you.  In my dealings with the novices I am like a setter on the scent of game.  The role gives me much anxiety because it so very exacting.  You shall decide for yourself if this be not the case.  All day long, from morn till night, I am in pursuit of game.  Mother Prioress and the Novice Mistress play the part of sportsmen—­but sportsmen are too big to be creeping through the cover, whereas a little dog can push its way in anywhere . . . and then its scent is so keen!  I keep a close watch upon my little rabbits; I do not want to do them any harm, but I tell them gently:  “You must keep your fur glossy, and must not look foolishly about as does a rabbit of the warren.”  In fact, I try to make them such as the Hunter of Souls would have them, simple little creatures that go on browsing heedless of everything else.

I laugh now, but seriously I am quite convinced that one of these rabbits—­you know which one I mean—­is worth a hundred times more than the setter; it has run through many a danger, and I own that, had I been in its place, I should have long since been lost for ever in the great forest of the world.

XX

I am so glad, dearest Celine, that you do not feel any particular attraction at the thought of entering the Carmel.  This is really a mark of Our Lord’s favour, and shows that He looks for a gift from your hands.  He knows that it is so much sweeter to give than to receive.  What happiness to suffer for Him Who loves us even unto folly, and to pass for fools in the eyes of the world!  We judge others by ourselves, and, as the world will not hearken to reason, it calls us unreasonable too.

We may console ourselves, we are not the first.  Folly was the only crime with which Herod could reproach Our Lord . . . and, after all, Herod was right.  Yes, indeed, it was folly to come and seek the poor hearts of mortal men to make them thrones for Him, the King of Glory, Who sitteth above the Cherubim!  Was He not supremely happy in the company of His Father and the Holy Spirit of Love?  Why, then, come down on earth to seek sinners and make of them His closest friends?  Nay, our folly could never exceed His, and our deeds are quite within the bounds of reason.  The world may leave us alone.  I repeat, it is the world that is insane, because it heeds not what Jesus has done and suffered to save it from eternal damnation.