t ambition."
Presentiments of evil now filled her bosom. The ambition of founding a
new dynasty had found a place in the breast of the _consul_: would not
this increase in strength in that of the _emperor_? The hopes of
establishing it in his own line were now little likely to be realized,
and the enemies of Josephine had already hinted at a divorce. What
impression these might have made had been effaced for the time by the
grant of power to Bonaparte to name his successor in the consulship,
and by the birth of a son to Louis, who had married Hortense, but
especially by his undiminished affection for his wife. He now had the
inducement of seeking, by new family ties, to secure the stability of
his throne. But such thoughts did not permanently disturb the repose
of Josephine. Impressions were readily made, and as quickly effaced;
and she possessed the true secret of happiness--the art of postponing
imaginary evil, and of enjoying the real good of the moment.

In her new situation Josephine found another source of sorrow. The
state and ceremony of the consulship had sadly marred the pleasures of
domestic intercourse. But now she found herself alone, above the
kindly glow of equal affections--a wretched condition for one "whose
first desire was to be loved." She sought, however, by increased
kindness, to lessen the distance between herself and her old friends
and companions. Nothing could be more amiable than the reception
which she gave to those who came to take the oaths of fidelity on
receiving appointments in her household. She took care to remove all
ostentatious ceremony, talked to them on familiar topics, and sought
to make the whole pass as an agreement between two friends to love
each other. This condescension extended even to her humble domestics,
yet never degenerated into undignified familiarity or absence of
self-possession, as the following little incident will show. On the
first occasion of her leaving St. Cloud for a distant excursion as
empress, she traversed a whole suit of apartments to give directions
to a very subaltern person of the household. The grand steward
ventured to remonstrate on her thus compromising her dignity. The
empress gayly replied, "You are quite right, my good sir; such neglect
of etiquette would be altogether inexcusable in a princess trained
from birth to the restraints of a throne; but have the goodness to
recollect that I have enjoyed the felicity of living so many years as
a pr