"
"In that case the second lady of honor ought to have taken her
place."
"Yesterday I gave permission to the Countess de Castries to go to a
family-festival to be celebrated at Versailles, and she went early
this morning."
"Every thing, then, is here just as it ought to be!" cried the
emperor, indignantly, thrusting the basket with his foot. "It is in
strict accordance with my wishes that your house is empty, that you
are so occupied, that you are alone, and that there was no one to
announce my visit?"
"But Cordelia certainly was there, and quite ready to attend to
this."
"Yes, she was," cried the emperor, "and it is true she wished to do
me that honor. But I would not allow her, and preferred coming to
you without being announced. In truth, it would be too ludicrous if
the old Sibyl had served the emperor as mistress of ceremonies."
"She formerly did him far greater and more difficult service," said
Madame Letitia, in a firm and calm voice, for she had fully
recovered her presence of mind, and, rising from her easy-chair,
proudly bridled herself up and turned toward the emperor her face,
which now had resumed its expression of noble dignity and composure.
"When I first saw your countenance," she said, calmly, "I was
frightened, and greeted you in my terror as the emperor. Pardon me
for it! I ought to have remembered that when the emperor crosses the
threshold of this house, he ceases to be emperor, and is simply
Napoleon Bonaparte, who, as it behooves a son, comes to pay his
respects to his mother.
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