"I may also mention here, that Margaret's charities, according
to her means, were larger than those of any other whom I ever
knew. At one time, in Rome, while she lived upon the simplest,
slenderest fare, spending only some ten or twelve cents a day
for her dinner, she lent, unsolicited, her last fifty dollars
to an artist, who was then in need. That it would ever be
returned to her, she did not know; but the doubt did not
restrain the hand from giving. In this instance, it was soon
repaid her; but her charities were not always towards the most
deserving. Repeated instances of the false pretences, under
which demands for charity are made, were known to her after
she had given to unworthy objects; but no experience of this
sort ever checked her kindly impulse to give, and being once
deceived taught her no lesson of distrust. She ever listened
with ready ear to all who came to her in any form of distress.
Indeed, to use the language of another friend, 'the prevalent
impression at Rome, among all who knew her, was, that she was
a mild saint and a ministering angel.'
"I have, in order to bring in these instances of her influence
on those about her, deviated from my track.
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