The archbishop has enjoined a collection to be made for the sufferers, and I have sent him a thousand crowns.

I said nothing of my having done so to any one, and the compliments which they have paid me on it have been embarrassing to me; but they have said it was right to let it be known that I had sent this money, for the sake of the example." She was on this, as on many other occasions, one of those who "Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame." One of her sayings, with which she more than once repressed the panegyrics of those who, as it seemed to her, extolled her benevolence too loudly, was that it was not worth while to say a great deal about giving a little assistance; and, on this occasion, so secret had she intended to keep her benevolence that she had not mentioned it to De Vermond, or even to Mercy.
But she judged rightly that the empress would enter into the feelings which had prompted both the act and also the silence; and she was amply rewarded by her mother's praise.
"I have been enchanted," the empress wrote, in instant reply, "with the thousand crowns that you have sent to the Hotel-Dieu, and you speak very properly in saying that you have been vexed at people speaking to you about it.

Such actions ought to be known to God alone, and I am certain that you acted in that spirit.

Still, those who published your act had good reasons for what they did, as you say yourself, thinking of the influence of your example.

My dear little girl, we owe this example to the world, and to set such is one of the most essential and most delicate duties of our condition.