The Kindness of Empress Elisabeth

A touching account of Sissi comforting a tragically widowed young woman. (Via Tea at Trianon). Although I generally find the Belgian Elisabeth to have been a better character than her unstable aunt, here they seem to have had a great deal of goodness, discretion and delicacy in common.

The kindness with which she broke the awful news to the poor woman was a marvel of delicate tenderness, and she remained with her until the body of the drowned man had been carried into the little cottage; then turning to the bereaved wife she said, softly: “Pray for the soul of your husband; I shall help you, in so far as the children are concerned, as much as I can.”