Letter from Mrs. Martin CF 81
To his brother Isidore Guérin
July 1872.
If you knew how happy your letter made me, but not without a mixture of sadness. I would like to see your drugstore business prosper. It's so painful to go to so much trouble for nothing. You can say that you know the worries and anxieties.
Yes, I understand that you are even more worried about MM (M. Maudelonde, his partner and brother-in-law) than for yourself; you are carrying two crosses, but I have the firm hope that all this will not last long; because it is impossible for God to abandon you.
What you tell me about the words of Holy Scripture, which you found at random, struck me; but it is not in vain, nor by chance, that we discover things so appropriate to our needs of the moment. No, the ordeal cannot be prolonged; to believe that, I have a reason that I don't want to tell you, I even have several, and I am as impatient as you to see them come true. I would be doubly happy, because I take almost as much interest in MM as in you. I think it's such a good family, so close to you, that your interests are common; you can't be happy without each other. It is very beautiful to live thus in union.
My sister has told me a lot about your business. She thinks you could have a representative in several cities. I think that's almost as difficult as taking the moon with your teeth!
I told her not to worry about all this that there was only one thing to do: pray to the good Lord, because neither she nor I could help you in any other way. manner. But He, who is not embarrassed, will get us out of there when he finds that we have suffered enough, and then you will recognize that it is neither to your abilities nor to your intelligence that you owe your success, but to God alone, like me, with my Point d'Alençon; this conviction is very salutary, I experienced it for myself.
You know that we are all given to pride and I often notice that those who have made their fortune are, for the most part, unbearably smug. I'm not saying that I would have come to that, nor you either, but we would have been more or less tainted by this pride; Then,
it is certain that constant prosperity leads away from God. He never led his chosen ones along this path, they had previously passed through the crucible of suffering, to purify themselves.
You will say that I preach, but however, it is not my intention; I think of these things very often and I tell you; now call it a sermon if you want!
I am very happy with Marie, who is really my consolation, she has tastes that are not at all worldly, she is even too wild, too shy. If this does not change, she will never marry, for she has very opposite inclinations.
I have only one sorrow, it is not to see my poor Léonie like her. I cannot analyze his character; besides, the most learned would lose their Latin there; I hope, however, that the good seed will one day come out of the ground. If I see this, I'll sing my Nunc Dimittis, but my sister tells me I probably won't see it; she thinks, no doubt, that I have hardly any time left to live. For the moment, however, it doesn't look like I'll have to leave so soon, because I'm doing very well.
Farewell, my dear friend; yes, you are my friend, I don't know any others, apart from my so good Louis; also, I love you with all my heart, as well as your wife, and I would very much like to see you happy.
