transform myself into a golden rain for the purpose of winning a
Danae, you arrant rogue?"

"Yes, general, but she always would take good care to be that Danae
herself."

"Yes, indeed, you are right," replied Bonaparte, laughing even
louder than before. "Josephine likes golden rains, and should they
be ever so violent, she would not complain; for if they should
immerse her up to the neck, in the course of a few hours she would
have got rid of the whole valuable flood."

"Your wife is as liberal and generous as a princess, and that is the
reason why she spends so much money. She scatters her charities with
liberal hands."

"Yes, Josephine has a noble and magnanimous heart," exclaimed
Napoleon, and his large blue eyes assumed a mild and tender
expression. "She is a woman just as I like women--so gentle and
good, so childlike and playful, so tender and affectionate, so
passionate and odd! And at the same time so dignified and refined in
her manners. Ah, you ought to have seen her at Milan receiving the
princes and noblesse in her drawing-room. I assure you, my friend,
the wife of little General Bonaparte looked and bore herself
precisely like a queen holding a levee, and she was treated and
honored as though she were one. Ah, you ought to have seen it!"

"I DID see it, general. I was at Milan before coming here."

"Ah, yes, that is true. I had forgotten it. You lucky fellow, you