tain things. On no subject do mortals so deceive
themselves as their motives for marriage. Their acts may be all right, but
the reasons they give for doing them never are. Napoleon desired a new
wife, because he wished a son to found a dynasty.

"You have Eugene!" said Josephine.

"He's my son by proxy," said Napoleon, with a weary smile.

All motives, like ores, are found mixed, and counting the whole at one
hundred, Napoleon's desire for a son after the flesh should stand as
ten--other reasons ninety. All men wish to be thought young. Napoleon was
forty, and his wife was forty-seven. Talleyrand had spoken of them as Old
Mr. and Mrs. Bonaparte.

A man of forty is only a giddy youth, according to his own estimate. Girls
of twenty are his playfellows. A man of sixty, with a wife forty, and
babies coming, is not old--bless me! But suppose his wife is nearly
seventy--what then! Napoleon must have a young wife. Then by marrying
Marie Louise, Austria could be held as friend: it was very necessary to do
this. Austria must be secured as an ally at any cost--even at the cost of
Josephine. It was painful, but must be done for the good of France. The
State should stand first in the mind of every loyal, honest man: all else
is secondary.

So Josephine was divorced, but was provided with an annuity that was
preposterous in its lavish proportions. It amounted to over half a million
dollars a year. I once knew a man who, on getting home from the club at
two o'clock in the morning, was reproached by his wife for his shocking
condition. He promptly threw the lady over the banisters. Next day he
purchased her a diamond necklace at the cost of a year's salary, but she
could not wear it out in society for a month on account of her black eye.

Napoleon divorced Josephine that he might be the father of a line of
kings. When he abdicated in Eighteen Hundred Fifteen, he declared his son,
the child of Marie Louise, "Napoleon the Second, Emperor of France," and
the world laughed. The son died before he had fairly reached manhood's
estate. Napoleon the Third, son of Hortense, Queen of Holland, the
grandson of Josephine, reigned long and well as Emperor of France. The
Prince Imperial--a noble youth--great-grandson of Josephine, was killed in
Africa while fighting the battle of the nation that undid Napoleon.

Josephine was a parent of kings: Napoleon was not.

When Bonaparte was banished to Elba, and Marie Louise was nowhere to be
seen, J