M. de Laferrière was a very agreeable man, with rather stiff manners. As we were turning round the Rue Royale the carriage had to draw up an instant, and General Fleury approached us. I knew him, as he had been introduced to me by Morny. He spoke to us, and Comte de Laferrière explained where we were going. As he left us he said to me, “Good luck!” Just at that moment a man who was passing by took up the words and called out, “Good luck, perhaps, but not for long, you crowd of good- for-nothings!” On arriving at the Palace we all three got out of the carriage, and were shown into a small yellow drawing-room on the ground floor. “I will go and inform his Majesty that you are here,” said M. de Laferrière, leaving us. When alone with Madame Guérard I thought I would rehearse my three curtseys. “_Mon petit Dame_,” I said, “tell me whether they are right.” I made the curtseys, murmuring, “Sire ... Sire ...” I began over again several times, looking down at my dress as I said “Sire ...” when suddenly I heard a stifled laugh. I stood up quickly, furious with Madame Guérard, but I saw that she too was bent over in a half circle. I turned round quickly, and behind me—was the Emperor. He was clapping his hands silently and laughing quietly, but still he _was_ laughing. My face flushed, and I was embarrassed, for I wondered how long he had been there. I had been curtseying I do not know how many times, trying to get my reverence right, and saying, “There ... that’s too low.... There; is that right, Guérard?” “Good Heavens!” I now said to myself. “Has he heard it all?” In spite of my confusion, I now made my curtsey again, but the Emperor said, smiling: “Oh! no; it could not be better than it was just now. Save them for the Empress, who is expecting you.” Oh, that “just now.” I wondered when it had been? I could not question Madame Guérard, as she was following at some distance with M. de Laferrière. The Emperor was at my side, talking to me of a hundred things, but I could only answer in an absent-minded way, on account of that “just now.” [Illustration: SARAH BERNHARDT IN A FANCY COSTUME BY WALTER SPINDLER ] I liked him much better thus, quite near, than in his portraits. He had such fine eyes, which he half closed whilst looking through his long lashes. His smile was sad and rather mocking. His face was pale and his voice faint, but seductive. We found the Empress seated in a large arm-chair. Her body was sheathed in a grey dress, and seemed to have been moulded into the material. I thought her very beautiful. She too was more beautiful than her portraits. I made my three curtseys under the laughing eyes of the Emperor. The Empress spoke, and the spell was then broken. That rough, hard voice coming from that brilliant woman gave me a shock.