And you, are you packing your trunks ?" "My trunks ?" "Why, are not you going off to a convent ?" said she, laughing.
"Would not you like to see it ?" exclaimed Durtal.

"Catch me at that! Enlisting as a private subject to a pious drill, one of a poor squad, whose every movement must mark time, and who, though he is not expected to keep his hands over the seam of his trowsers, is required to hide them under his scapulary--" "Ta, ta, ta," interrupted the housekeeper, "I tell you once more, you are grudging, bargaining with God--" "But before coming to so serious a decision it is quite necessary that I should argue all the pros and cons; in such a case some mental litigation is clearly permissible." She shrugged her shoulders; and there was such peace in her face, such a glow of flame lurked behind the liquid blackness of her eyes, that Durtal stood looking at her, admiring the honesty and purity of a soul which could thus rise to the threshold of her eyes and come forth in her look.
"How happy you are!" he exclaimed.
A cloud dimmed her eyes, and she looked down.
"Envy no one, our friend," said she, "for each has his own struggles and griefs." And when he had parted from her, Durtal, as he went home, thought of the disasters she had confessed, the cessation of her intercourse with Heaven, the fall of a soul that had been wont to soar above the clouds.
How she must suffer! "No, no," he said, "the service of the Lord is not all roses.

If we study the lives of the Saints we see these Elect tormented by dreadful maladies, and the most painful trials.

No, holiness on earth is no child's play, life is not amusement.

To Saints, indeed, even on earth excessive suffering finds compensation in excessive joys; but to other Christians, such small fry as we are, what distress and trouble! We question the everlasting silence and none answers; we wait and none comes.