ot at present,'
replied her Majesty, I but that will come; be sure of it. I was,
however, by no means persuaded that this would be the case. She
caressed me a while longer, and I withdrew. When the First Consul
was at Saint-Cloud, all the chiefs of the different departments of
the household service assembled in the apartments of my father, who
was the most popular, as well as the eldest, member of the
household. M. Constant, who had seen me as a child at Malmaison,
found me sufficiently attractive at Saint-Cloud to ask me of my
father, subject to the approval of their Majesties; and it was
decided that we should be married after the coronation. I was
fourteen years old fifteen days after our marriage.

"Both my sister and I are always received with extreme kindness by
her Majesty the Empress; and whenever, for fear of annoying her, we
let some time pass without going to see her, she complains of it to
my father. She sometimes admits us to her morning toilet, which is
conducted in our presence, and to which are admitted in her
apartments only her women; and a few persons of her household, who,
like us, count among their happiest moments those in which they can
thus behold this adored princess. The conversations are almost
always delightful, and her Majesty frequently relates anecdotes
which a word from one or another of us recalls to her."

Her Majesty the Empress had promised Louise a dowry; but the money which
she intended for that she spent otherwise, and consequently my wife had
only a few jewels of little value and two or three pieces of stuff.

M. Charvet was too refined to recall this promise to her Majesty's
recollection. However, that was the only way to get anything from her;
for she knew no better how to economize than how to refuse. The Emperor
asked me a short time after my marriage what the Empress had given my
wife, and on my reply showed the greatest possible vexation; no doubt
because the sum that had been demanded of him for Louise's dowry had been
spent otherwise. His Majesty the Emperor had the goodness, while on this
subject, to assure me that he himself would hereafter look after my
interests, and that he was well satisfied with my services, and would
prove it to me.

I have said above that my wife's younger sister was the favorite of her
Majesty the Empress; and yet she received on her marriage no richer dowry
than Louise, neverthel