"Reserved as he was," says his daughter, "he had a proud disposition, a sensitive spirit; he was a man of energy in his whole style of sentiments." The fallen minister retired to his country-house at St.Ouen.
He was accompanied thither by the respect and regret of the public, and the most touching proofs of their esteem.

"You would have said, to see the universal astonishment, that never was news so unexpected as that of M.Necker's resignation," writes Grimm in his _Correspondance litteraire;_ "consternation was depicted on every face; those who felt otherwise were in a very small minority; they would have blushed to show it.

The walks, the cafes, all the public thoroughfares were full of people, but an extraordinary silence prevailed.

People looked at one another, and mournfully wrung one another's hands, as if in the presence, I would say, of a public calamity, were it not that these first moments of distress resembled rather the grief of a disconsolate family which has just lost the object and the mainstay of its hopes.

The same evening they gave, at the Comedie-Francaise, a performance of the _Partie de Chasse de Henri IV_.