Louis was disappointed.  He set out for home—­for exile he would have said—­but ere long he saw clearly that his life was to be dedicated to God in another and equally fruitful way, and that the Alpine monastery was to be nothing more to him than a sweet memory.

* * * * * *

A few years after the vain quest of Louis Martin, a similar scene was enacted in Alencon itself.  Accompanied by her mother, Zelie Guerin—­an attractive and pious girl—­presented herself at the Convent of the Sisters of Charity in the hope of gaining admission.  For years it had been her desire to share the Sisters’ work, but this was not to be.  In the interview that followed, the Superioress—­guided by the Holy Ghost —­decided unhesitatingly that Zelie’s vocation was not for the religious life.  God wanted her in the world, and so she returned to her parents, and to the companionship of her elder sister and her younger brother.  Shortly afterwards the gates of the Visitation Convent at Le Mans closed upon her beloved sister, and Zelie’s thoughts turned to the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.  “O my God”—­she repeated constantly—­ “since I am unworthy to be Thy Spouse, like my dear sister, I shall enter the married state to fulfill Thy Holy Will, and I beseech Thee to make me the mother of many children, and to grant that all of them may be dedicated to Thee.”

God gave ear to her prayer, and His Finger was visible in the circumstances which led to her becoming the wife of Louis Martin, on July 12, 1858, in Alencon’s lovely Church of Notre Dame.  Like the chaste Tobias, they were joined together in matrimony—­“solely for the love of children, in whom God’s Name might be blessed for ever and ever.”  Nine white flowers bloomed in this sacred garden.  Of the nine, four were transplanted to Paradise ere their buds had quite unfolded, while five were gathered in God’s walled gardens upon earth, one entering the Visitation Convent at Caen, the others the Carmel of Lisieux.

From the cradle all were dedicated to Mary Immaculate, and all received her name:  Marie Louise, Marie Pauline, Marie Leonie, Marie Helene, who died at the age of four and a half, Marie Joseph Louis, Marie Joseph Jean Baptiste, Marie Celine, Marie Melanie Therese, who died when three months old, and lastly, Marie Francoise Therese.

The two boys were the fruit of prayers and tears.  After the birth of the four elder girls, their parents entreated St. Joseph to obtain for them the favour of a son who should become a priest and a missionary.  Marie Joseph soon was given them, and his pretty ways appealed to all hearts, but only five months had run their course when Heaven demanded what it had lent.  Then followed more urgent novenas.

The grandeur of the Priesthood, glorious upon earth, ineffable in eternity, was so well understood by those Christian parents, that their hearts coveted it most dearly.  At all costs the family must have a Priest of the Lord, one who would be an apostle, peradventure a martyr.  But, “the thoughts of the Lord are not our thoughts, His ways are not our ways.”  Another little Joseph was born, and with him hope once again grew strong.  Alas!  Nine months had scarcely passed when he, too, fled from this world and joined his angel brother.