These assemblies of children were so many little communities of innocent souls in which God took great complacency, and it was at this time she made her first Holy Communion. Her mother's death occurring soon after, she had an opportunity of practising the virtues of obedience, etc., under circumstances far in advance of her years. By the death of his wife, M. Bourgeois found himself embarrassed with the care of a helpless young family, but noticing in little Margaret a certain air of gravity and prudence, accompanied by sincere piety, he seriously thought of giving her charge of the household, and particularly of the education of a younger brother and sister. Nothing is known with certainty of the after lives of these children, except that, in 1653, when Margaret was making arrangements to leave France for Canada, two of them were minors, in whose favor she voluntarily dispossessed herself of _her_ share of the family inheritance. Neither can anything be recorded of the virtues she displayed in discharging the laborious duties of the position in which her father placed her at so tender an age. No one could speak of these years of responsibility except herself, and humility would never permit her to raise the veil, or speak of what must have been a most interesting portion of her saintly life. Only one circumstance of these early years could she ever be induced to mention, and of this she sometimes spoke with great bitterness of soul, and much exaggeration. It was that, a few times, during seasons of worldly dissipation, she had attached undue importance to dress--taking great pains to arrange her toilette fashionably so as to display her personal attractions to advantage. Although this happened without dressing beyond her station of life, or exceeding the bounds of modesty, she acknowledged that it tarnished the purity of her heart, and filled her mind with vain and foolish thoughts. It was one of those youthful faults for which she took care to punish herself severely in after life, being remarkable for the simplicity and modesty of her attire, even before she became a religeuse. Her beautiful and well-concealed spirit of mortification made her correspond faithfully to the motions of grace which Divine Providence infused into her soul, and by which she was to become so intimately united to God. As He always makes an instrument of His Blessed Mother to bestow such graces on His elect, it was by devotion to Mary that He attached Margaret Bourgeois irrevocably to His service. She had always been a devoted client of the Blessed Virgin, and the singular favor she received, that will now be related, was probably not the first vouchsafed her by the Queen of Heaven. The circumstances under which she received it prove that she was a member of the Rosary Society, which was then effecting such wonders in the spiritual life of Christendom.