Excerpt from A Sister's Story If any of these should be ignorant of the love of God, this work may perhaps inspire them with a desire to learn more of the Divine principle which pervades every line of it and mixes with every thought. I cannot but hope that they would find in it some interest, and would not close the book without questioning whether it can be really true that the pious habits of a Catholic life 'impede the development of the mind, enslave the soul,' or harden the heart; and if it is not, on the contrary, evident that those beings so devoted to God would have lost, even in the eyes of men, their greatest charm, had they lacked that piety which was the mainspring of their lives. I should be glad, indeed, if certain writers of our own day, who draw such repulsive pictures of women, would study this record in which all the feelings of youth are faithfully portrayed. Could they assert, in the face of it, that a heart, habitually under the influence of the Divine Presence, must necessarily be wanting in tenderness towards relatives and friends, or lack enthusiasm for whatever is beautiful in nature and art? Could they maintain that the habitual remembrance of the world to come must fill the mind with sadness and with affected solemnity, or suppose that the subjects of this memoir, whose manners and conversation delighted even strangers, were ever considered stiff and morose because of their piety? It is precisely because they lived in the world and followed its ordinary customs, and were not recluses and inmates of the cloister, that I hope the history of their haves will prove useful to many who turn away dismayed and discouraged from examples of more austere sanctity. My chief difficulty has arisen from the abundance of materials which the death of my beloved ones has placed in my hands; from the perplexity of deciding what to select and what to suppress. Amongst these treasures there exists one so complete and interesting that in itself it would furnish materials for a separate work. I mean the story of Alexandrine, who, by her marriage with my brother Albert, became my sister; a sister so dear and so intimately united to me, that the tie of blood could scarcely have bound us more closely together. When we first met in Russia, in the early days of our girlhood, and again in Italy, in the brightest period of our youth, Alexandrine was endeared to me by similarity of age, of tastes, and by all that inspires mutual affection between young people, as well as by sympathy in higher and holier joys. Our friendship remained one of those which nothing in life can change, and which death itself cannot weaken. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.