what she liked, was completely under the sway of her fascination and despotism.
Rachel's indignant anger at the calumnies that were circulated about her avarice, was unbounded. Rothschild, her friend, tried to comfort her one day. "If I had given," he said, "to all those who have asked me, I should be obliged to borrow a hundred sous of you now." "My dear Baron, you are only importuned in Paris, since you do not go to make money in the provinces, but I am pestered all over the world with suppliants and beggars."
The following answer to one of these requests shows the dignity and directness with which she could dispose of inopportune demands:—
Mon cher Monsieur,
Si je vous envoyais ces 500 francs, je serais peut être à en avoir besoin quand nous seriez gêné de me les rendre. Si vous me permettez, de vous envoyer 100 francs, je suis, au contraire, bien certaine, qu'ils ne me feront jamais défaut, ce qui vous permettra d'en agir à votre aise. Les voici donc, comprenez moi. Mille civilités.
She wrote to a celebrated banker:—
Monsieur,
Mon ami, M. , prétend que je n'ai qu'un mot à vous écrire pour lui faire obtenir un cinquantaine d'actions des chemins de fer autrichiens. Si vous voulez bien en ajouter cinquante pour chaque mot de plus, l'excédent sera pour votre toute devouée.
Rachel left, it is true, 1,500,000 francs, but, on the other hand, she gained more than four millions; if she had spent 50,000 francs a year from 1838, she would have accumulated three millions to leave behind her. Avaricious, however, as she was reputed to be in some things, she devoted herself to her friends with almost prodigal generosity. On the day Michel Lévy
