. A life of Napoleon Boneparte:. instructor who informed her about their fami-lies, their deeds, their books, their diplomatic victories. Shemastered this instruction so thoroughly that she always hadsome flattering reference at her tongues end. The diligenceand energy she showed in preparing herself for official func-tions is the more surprising when one remembers her nat-ural indolence. Josephine had few resources in which she could find relieffrom her burden of etiquette. She cared little for books—out-of-door sports wearied her, and the hunt, on which sheoften accompanied the Emperor, was
. A life of Napoleon Boneparte:. instructor who informed her about their fami-lies, their deeds, their books, their diplomatic victories. Shemastered this instruction so thoroughly that she always hadsome flattering reference at her tongues end. The diligenceand energy she showed in preparing herself for official func-tions is the more surprising when one remembers her nat-ural indolence. Josephine had few resources in which she could find relieffrom her burden of etiquette. She cared little for books—out-of-door sports wearied her, and the hunt, on which sheoften accompanied the Emperor, was a sore trial. She wasafraid, to begin with, and she never failed to cry over awounded beast. She was a poor musician. She embroid-ered, to be sure, but not because she cared for it, she did likecards, and played tric-trac whenever etiquette allowed played a good hand of whist, too; and she was veryfond of telling her own fortune with cards—hardly a daypassed, indeed, that she did not try to read the future JOSEPHINE, EMPRESS OF THE FRENCH AND QUEEN OF ITALY. 1805. Designed by Buguet. 394 ETIQUETTE 395 The one real pleasure in her life was undoubtedly hertoilet. She had always been extravagantly fond of personaldecoration—she loved brilliant stones, gay silks, fine laces,soft cashmeres; and when she found herself an Empress,with every reason and every opportunity for indulging herlove of finery, she abandoned herself to the pleasure untilher wardrobe became the chief amusement of her life. Almost every day men and women, bearing stuffs of allsorts—jewels, models, laces, everything, in short, thatFrench fancy could devise for a womans toilet—found theirway to Josephines private apartments. Before these wilytradespeople she had no self-restraint—one should say, per-haps, no self-respect,—for almost invariably she allowedherself to be wheedled into buying. The numbers of piecesadded to her wardrobe each year indicates a startling^prodigality. Thus,
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