should take the initiative in any advances made, a fact which explains
the awkwardness of her early relations with the ladies of her court.
After intimacies had been formed, and the young Empress had chosen her
friends with all the abandon of her young heart, then haughtiness and
constraint vanished, or reappeared only on occasions of ceremony.
Marie Louise was of a calm, thoughtful character; it took little to
arouse her sensitive spirit; and yet, although easily moved, she was by
no means demonstrative. The Empress had received a very careful
education, her mind was cultivated and her tastes very simple, and she
possessed every accomplishment.

She detested the insipid hours passed in idleness, and liked occupation
because it suited her tastes, and also because in a proper employment of
her time she found the only means of driving away ennui. I think she
was, in fact, a most congenial wife for the Emperor. She was too much
interested in the concerns of her own private life to ever mingle in
political intrigues, and, although she was both Empress and Queen, very
often was in entire ignorance of public affairs, except what knowledge
she obtained from the journals. The Emperor at the end of days filled
with agitation could find a little relaxation only in a quiet domestic
hearth, which restored to him the happiness of family life; and,
consequently, an intriguing woman or a talkative politician would have
annoyed him exceedingly.

Nevertheless, the Emperor sometimes complained of the want of affability
the Empress showed to the ladies of her court, and said that this
excessive reserve was injurious to him in a country where the opposite
extreme is most common.

This was because he was recalling the past somewhat, and thinking of the