A murder which took place in Paris last week, that
of the Baroness de Valley, who had apparently been strangled, is accounted for, it seems, by her reputation for wealth, amassed by a long course of rigid parsimony. She had gained her wealth by moneylending at high rates of interest, and by strictly enforcing the terms on which the loans were advanced. She had enjoyed Court favour under Louis Philippe, and in 1870 had vehemently resented the conquest of France by Germany, and had even slapped a German officer in the face when he proposed a toast in honour of the capitulation of Metz. So impulsive an act as that does not suggest the temperament of a miser, yet in later life she dined for 23 sons and paid over the counter to escape the 2 sons usually given to the waiter. Misers must be idealists, or they could never exaggerate so monstrously the merit of money. But what a curious selection they make of the object to be idealised)
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