most; never will I console myself for it, do what I may. When one has loved a man like you, Barras, can one ever know another attachment?' 'How about Hoche?' I replied with very little emotion, and almost laughing; 'you loved him above all others, and yet there was the aide-de-camp, Vanakre, e tutti quanti! . . . Come now, you are a mighty fine cajoler.' This was the mildest and truest word that could be spoken to her; to cajole all who came in contact with her was the trade of Madame Beauharnais, a veritable chevalier d'industrie, so to speak, in town and at Court, from the day she had been imported from her island of Martinique into France. My answer took her breath away, and unable to utter any reply in the face of such positive facts, she contented herself with shedding some more tears, seizing my hands with all her might, and carrying them to her eyes, so as to bedew them with her tears. I was getting tired of this scene, and, not knowing how to put an end to it, I adopted the course of ringing, so as to have my valet as a third party. This compelled her to cease; Madame Beauharnais was a true actress, who knew how to play several parts at one and the same time. She told my valet that she had suddenly felt poorly, that her nerves troubled her, and that on such occasions she could not hold back her tears; that I had just ministered to her as a brother would to his sister, and that she now felt a great deal better.
