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332 on such and such occasion. He one day spilled some ink over one of the Empress's gowns because he did not like it, and to force her to put on another."

"On the morning of the consecration," says the Duchesse d'Abrantès, "the Emperor himself tried on the Empress the crown she was to wear. During the ceremony he was most attentive, arranged this little crown, which surmounted a coronet of diamonds, altered it, replaced it, and moved it again."

But, nevertheless, there were occasional quarrels between the two, mainly owing to the incurable extravagance of Josephine. Napoleon inherited from his mother, and from his days of struggle, a most careful regard for the value of money. Of that I shall give some curious stories by-and-by. Poor Josephine, on the other hand, never was capable of counting the cost of anything, and she was so fond of spending money that she frequently bought things quite useless to her for the mere sake of buying. The result was that she was always being cheated, always in debt, always in terror and tears when the time came round to meet her bills and she had to appeal to her stern taskmaster for money. Says Sismondi:—

"Josephine. . . . was always surrounded by people who robbed her; she denied herself no whim, never reckoned the cost, and allowed prodigious debts to accumulate. It happened on one