occasion, when the settlement of the budget was approaching, that Napoleon saw the eyes of Josephine and of Madame de la Rochefoucauld (principal lady-in-waiting) very red. He said to Duroc: 'These women have been crying; try to find out what it is about.' Duroc discovered that there was a deficit of six hundred thousand francs (twenty-four thousand pounds). Napoleon, incredulous, immediately wrote an order for one million francs (forty thousand pounds), and exclaimed: 'All this for miserable trifles! Simply stolen by a lot of scoundrels! I must send away so-and-so, and forbid certain shopkeepers to present themselves at the Palace.'"
XXII.
NAPOLEON'S INFIDELITIES.
Poor Josephine had further and graver causes of complaint. For the infidelities, the coldness, the neglect with which she afflicted Napoleon when he was a raw young soldier, and for the first time knew the graces and charms of a pretty woman, she had to pay the penalty of years of misery, helpless jealousy, sometimes even violence. By a process which is not uncommon in married life, and especially among those whose fortunes have undergone considerable modification, the woman's love grew as the man's waned. Napoleon sometimes was decent enough to endeavour to conceal
