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356 brutal view of the sex. Accordingly, his plans with regard to his new wife are a singular mixture of precaution and indulgence. M. Masson declares that "no man, however high or low in the social scale, was to be allowed to remain even for a moment with the Empress." In short, his idea is that his wife should lead in the West the life of the dwellers in the harem in the East, except that the duenna took the place of the eunuch. But the other side of the system is that Napoleon offers to his young wife all material comforts, just like those that "a Sultan would bestow on his favourite Odalisque."

"At Vienna Marie Louise never knew what it was to have elegant dresses, exquisite laces, rare shawls, or luxurious underwear. She will have now—on condition, however, that no male modiste approaches her, that the selections are made by her ladies-in-waiting—everything French industry can produce, all that is novel, that is dear. He gives her a foretaste of all these by the trousseau and jewel-cases which he sends her, every article of which he has seen himself, and has had packed under his own eyes."

It will make some of the ladies who read this article almost envious when I mention even some of the presents of which Berthier was the bearer to the young bride.

Among other splendours, says Baron Peyrusse, were a necklace composed of thirty-two groups of