I beg you, my dear papa, to read the letter that I am writing to my friend the Abbé de St. Non, and then to be so kind as to send it back to me, along with the letter that you ask me to deliver to my neighbor. I cannot tell you how vexed I was to see a letter from you, that I had entrusted to a friend, in the hands of people I hardly know. I am well aware that this letter could only do credit to the man who wrote it, and bring honor to the lady who received it! But I prefer to show that I am worthy of the esteem of a man like you through discreet and modest conduct, and to enjoy this esteem in silence. Now I have almost been made to look like a frivolous woman, and this distresses me. At least my papa will not believe it; he knows my heart too well for that. He knows that friendship alone is the object of all my desires, that I love virtue because I love him so tenderly, that I fear publicity, and that I desire above all else to be ignored by people of no importance.