own land can hardly refuse to bear. What gracious, noble, loving and helpful women, whether they labor within convent walls or in wider spheres of action, have been educated in their schools! In a hundred cities, in a thousand homes, they are centers whence radiate purity and love, sweetness and light. They are strong and gentle; they are patient and mild; they are wise and helpful. They rule not alone in the house, but in the hearts and minds of fathers, husbands and sons, who, when experience has taught them how sordid, hard and narrow so many of their fellows are, think of these noble and gracious women and are certain that in human nature there is a god-like power of truth, goodness and beauty.
How shall I permit this occasion to pass without turning my thought to Madam Hardey, one of the first pupils of the Sacred Heart in America, and the foundress of this and of so many other homes of religion and learning, whom it was my good fortune to know and to honor and reverence almost above all other women! Had Madam Barat done nothing for America but to train her and give her opportunity for the exercise of her great talents, she would have made us forever her debtors. What a fund of good sense, what a balance of judgment, what a sentiment of justice, what endurance of labor and trial, what power of love and helpfulness, what a strong and serene spirit there was in her! She had the gift to make authority lovable, and where she ruled the wise and virtuous wished that she might never cease to rule. She was born to govern, and in obeying her all felt that they were hearkening to the voice of reason and doing the will of God. How wholly unselfish, how free from vanity, how incapable of deceit she was! How tolerant, how large of mind and heart, how able and ready to sympathize with all who have good will!
Though loved with a tender devotion which few have known, and followed with a confidence that never questions aught, though honored and consulted by the rich and fashionable, not less than by priests and bishops, Madam Hardey retained always the perfect simplicity of speech and action which belongs only to the most innocent or the greatest souls. She knew how to adapt herself to every situation, and to the most various dispositions. No one left
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