etter. Now listen to me. I like you. What's
more, I value your respect.

LADY. You value what you have not got, then.

NAPOLEON. I shall have it presently. Now attend to me. Suppose I were
to allow myself to be abashed by the respect due to your sex, your
beauty, your heroism and all the rest of it? Suppose I, with nothing
but such sentimental stuff to stand between these muscles of mine and
those papers which you have about you, and which I want and mean to
have: suppose I, with the prize within my grasp, were to falter and
sneak away with my hands empty; or, what would be worse, cover up my
weakness by playing the magnanimous hero, and sparing you the violence
I dared not use, would you not despise me from the depths of your
woman's soul? Would any woman be such a fool? Well, Bonaparte can rise
to the situation and act like a woman when it is necessary. Do you
understand?

The lady, without speaking, stands upright, and takes a packet of
papers from her bosom. For a moment she has an intense impulse to dash
them in his face. But her good breeding cuts her off from any vulgar
method of relief. She hands them to him politely, only averting her
head. The moment he takes them, she hurries across to the other side of
the room; covers her face with her hands; and sits down, with her body
turned away to the back of the chair.

NAPOLEON (gloating over the papers). Aha! That's right. That's right.
(Before opening them he looks at her and says) Excuse me. (He sees that
she is hiding her face.) Very angry with me, eh? (He unties the packet,
the seal of which is already broken, and puts it on the table to
examine its contents.)

LADY (quietly, taking down her hands and showing that she is not
crying, but only thinking). No. You were right. But I am sorry for you.

NAPOLEON (pausing in the act of taking the uppermost paper from the
packet). Sorry for me! Why?

LADY. I am going to see you lose your honor.

NAPOLEON. Hm! Nothing worse than that? (He takes up the paper.)

LADY. And your happiness.

NAPOLEON. Happiness, little woman, is the most tedious thing in the
world to me. Should I be what I am if I cared for happiness? Anything
else?

LADY. Nothing-- (He interrupts her with an exclamation of satisfaction.
She proceeds quietly) except that you will cut a very foolish figure in
the eyes of France.

NAPOLEON (quickly). What? (The hand holding the paper involuntarily
drops. The lady looks at him enigmatically in tr