nature; and it is a gratifying proof of the honest integrity of her
purpose to know that she persevered to the last in the life of humility
and seclusion which her conscience had convinced her was the best life
that she could lead. Persons who knew her in the Carmelite convent,
report that she lived and died in it, preserving to the last, all the
better part of the youthful liveliness of her character. She always
received visitors with pleasure, always talked to them with surprising
cheerfulness, always assisted the poor, and always willingly wrote
letters to her former patrons in Paris to help the interests of her
needy friends. Towards the end of her life, she was afflicted with
blindness; but she was a trouble to no one in consequence of this
affliction, for she continued, in spite of it, to clean her own cell,
to make her own bed, and to cook her own food just as usual. One little
characteristic vanity--harmless enough, surely?--remained with her to
the last. She never forgot her own handsome face, which all. Paris had
admired in the by-gone time; and she contrived to get a dispensation
from the Pope which allowed her to receive visitors in the convent
parlour without a veil.

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