"It is for you, sir," said Madame Bertrand simply.
Thanking her warmly, Napoleon added, "I will keep it until my death."
On this occasion the Emperor was especially inclined to talk about his first wife, and Betsy, hearing him, wondered that he had been willing to separate himself from her.
"Josephine," he said, "was the most feminine woman I have ever known—all charm and sweetness and grace. Era la dama la piu graziosa in Francia." Then he continued: "Josephine was the goddess of the toilet. All fashions came from her. Besides this she was humane and always thoughtful of others. She was the best of women. Although the English and the Bourbons allow that I did some good, yet they generally qualify it by saying that it was chiefly through the instrumentality of Josephine. But the fact is that she never interfered in politics. Great as my veneration was for her, I could not bear to have it thought that she in any way ruled my public actions."
Napoleon's praises of Josephine continued to flow on.
"She was the greatest patroness of the arts
