f cholera.

There is a wide difference between Mme. Recamier and Josephine, the
two women of the Napoleonic era who exerted so powerful an influence
upon the social and political fortunes of France. At the time of
Napoleon's first success, the former was only twenty-one, with
Madonna-like charms and attractiveness; the latter, thirty-five, but
with exquisite taste in dress and skill in beautifying. Possessed of
unstudied natural grace and elegance, and always attired in perfect
harmony with her beauty of face and form, she could easily stand a
comparison with the other beauties of the day, all of whom studied her
air and manner and marked the aristocratic ease and poise of her real
_noblesse_ of the old regime.

[Illustration 6:
_MME. RECAMIER'S SALON
After the painting by Adrien Moreau._
_Thus, in Lamartine we find: "The young girl was, they say, a_
sous-entendu _of nature: she could be a wife, she could not be a mother."
These are the two mysteries we must respect, but which we must know to
have been the secret of the entire life of Mme. Recamier. Knowing how to
maintain, in her salon, harmony between men of the most varied
temperaments and political ideas, it was possible for her to remain all
her life an intelligent and warm-hearted bond. She admitted men and
women of both parties to her salon.... was moderate and just in the
midst of the most arduous struggles, tolerant toward her adversaries,
generous toward the conquered, sympathetic to all, and remarkably
successful in conciliating all political, literary, and philosophical
opinions as well as the passions which she aroused in her worshippers._]

"Josephine had a faded and brown complexion, which she remedied with
rouge and powder; her small mouth concealed her bad teeth; her elegant
figure and graceful movements, refined expression, gentle voice and
dignity, all dexterously expressed with an air of coquetry, made her
delightful." The happiest part of the life of Napoleon and Josephine
was during their stay in Italy, when he was absolutely faithful
to her. As soon as Napoleon left for Egypt, Talleyrand secured the
erasure of many noble names from the list of the proscribed exiles and
soon gathered about him a large number of Royalists, who immediately
began to pay court to Josephine. Napoleon had enjoined her to keep
her salon according to the means he provided and to entertain all
influential people. To this she was equal; and all men of elevated
rank, the