Flowers that Spring in Desert Places [pp. 803-807]

1894.] FLOWERS THAT SPRING IN DESERT PLACES.
and which had been sent to her, unread, by her brother, who
knew not that it was to have an influence on her life. In it
there is mention of the perpetual adoration of the Blessed
Sacrament.
At the end of her retreat Elizabeth returned to her confessor
and said:
"I'm going to be a nun, father, in some convent of strict
observance, where the perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is kept."
"Well, may God be praised, what a coincidence is this!
When the bell rang for me to come to the parlor to see you,
I had in my hand a letter received this morning saying that
several Sisters of St. Dominic are on their way from France
to the Diocese of Newark to found a monastery in which the
Lord of Hosts shall be worshipped continually night and day,
and in which the life will be about as severe as it is among the
Carmelites. Possibly there is your appointed place."
There was her place. She is there now, happy in her high
and hard and holy calling.
Aloysius is married, the father of four children, a writer for
newspapers......
The man in blue paused for a full half minute, looked out
of the window the while at the flying scenery, and said in conclusion
"No one could convince me that the prayers, the tears, the
sufferings, the sacrifices, and the labors of that mother have
gone without their reward, and no one could persuade me that
that reward did not consist, directly, if only in part, in the call
to the counsels, not indeed of the son for whom they were
offered, but of the daughter who has valiantly responded to
her sublime vocation. The mother obtained the grace from
God. Of that I have no doubt. By her it was proposed for
her boy; by Heaven it was disposed to her girl."
"Do you think that the boy first received and then lost the
grace?" questioned the man in brown.
"God only knows the secrets of hearts. But the deafness
coming upon the boy without fault of his, and acting as a bar
to his path towards the altar, would appear to answer that
question in the negative."
"That's so," said the man in brown.
And the studious-looking person in the next seat buried his
face in his magazine as he muttered to himself: "Who in the
world could have told that man my life's story, and what would
he say if he only knew that I am Aloysius!"
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