When he was ill she prepared dishes and confections that she knew would tempt his appetite. But she was not satisfied with looking after the welfare of his body, for she took occasion to send with the cakes and preserved fruits a sermonette for the benefit of his soul. An extract from one of her letters gives an insight into the character of this devoted daughter, who, Galileo says in a letter to his friend, Elia Diodati, "was a woman of exquisite mind, singular goodness and most tenderly attached to me." "Of the preserved citron you ordered," she writes him on the nineteenth of December, 1625, "I have only been able to do a small quantity. I feared the citrons were too shriveled for preserving, and so they proved. I send two baked pears for these days of vigil. But the greatest treat of all I send you is a rose, which ought to please you extremely, seeing what a rarity it is at this season. And with the rose you must accept its thorns, which represent the bitter passion of Our Lord, while the green leaves represent the hope we may entertain that, through the same sacred passion, we, having passed through the darkness of this short winter of our mortal life, may attain to the brightness and felicity of an eternal spring in heaven, which may our gracious God grant us through His mercy."[242] She always insists upon his keeping her fully informed about his studies and discoveries. She is particular, also, about receiving without delay copies of his latest publications. "I beg you," she writes in one of her letters, "to be so kind as to send me that book of yours which has just been published, _Il Saggiatore_, so that I may read it; for I have a great desire to see it." On another occasion, after his difficulties with the Holy Office, when she fancies her father is not keeping her fully informed about the subject matter of his writings, she implores him to tell her on what topic he is engaged, "if," she archly adds, "it be something I can understand and you are not afraid that I will blab." And on still another occasion Sister Celeste reminds her father of a promise of his to send her a small telescope. From this we should infer that she desired to repeat the observations on the heavenly bodies that had created such a sensation in the learned world, and which had given occasion for such acrimonious controversy. In one of her earlier letters Sister Celeste calls her father's attention to a promise of his to spend an afternoon with her and her sister Arcangela, also a nun in the same convent. And, referring to one of the regulations of the Franciscan cloister, she playfully observes: "You will be able to sup in the parlor, since the excommunication is for the table cloth"--O Sister Celeste!--"and not for the meats thereon."