Page:Helen Leah Reed - Napoleons young neighbour.djvu/202

174 to the newspapers speaking of the Emperor's great admiration for her.

Napoleon, in reality, did not at all like this visitor, and when she had gone he said severely to the young girl:

"You shall introduce me to no more ladies." His tone was so unusually severe that Betsy did not dare confess what really was the case, that she had brought Mrs. S. to see Napoleon merely to tease him, knowing that it was positively disagreeable to him to meet very plain women.

Betsy one day came to him full of excitement over a traveller whom she had just seen.

"Oh, he is extraordinary; queerer than any one I have ever met here. His long black beard reaches to his waist, and he wears a regular mandarin's dress."

"An Englishman dressed like a Chinaman?"

"Yes! You know he has been there so long, and he has done the most wonderful things! Why, he has even travelled to TibetThibet [sic] and talked to the Grand Lama."

The Emperor's interest was aroused.

"I have always wished to hear something about the Grand Lama," he said, "especially