Yet the gold which she did not need for the marquise seemed to Barbara
like money unjustly obtained. While she was riding out at noon, Frau
Lerch found it in her chest, and thought that she now knew what had made
the girl so happy the day before. She was all the more indignant when,
soon after, Barbara gave half the new wealth to the Prebrunn town clerk
to distribute among the poor journeymen potters whose huts had been
burned down the previous night. The rest she kept to give to the
relatives of her one-eyed maid-servant at home, who were in the direst
poverty.

For the first time she had felt the pleasure of interposing, like a
higher power, in the destiny of others. What she had hoped from the
greatness to which she had risen now appeared on the eve of being
actually and wholly fulfilled.

Even the strange manner in which the marquise thanked her for her
generosity could but partially impair the exquisite sense of happiness
which filled her heart.

As soon as the old noblewoman heard that the bill of exchange for her son
was on the way to Paris, she expressed her intention of thanking his
Majesty for this noble donation.

Startled and anxious, Barbara was obliged to forbid this, and to confess
that, on the contrary, the Emperor had refused to do anything whatever
for her son, and that morning, for little Babette's sake, she had used
her own property.

The marquise then angrily declared that a Marquise de Leria could accept
such a favour without a blush solely from his Majesty. Even from an