THE WOMAN IN THE DIMITY GOWN . 
405 
“ I am ready to bear the consequences, 
Sire,” she said. “ It was all my doing.” 
u What was ? ” rapped out the Emperor. 
“ What your Majesty has seen to-day ; 
what your Majesty has discovered.” 
“ You mean ? ” questioned the little man 
before her. 
“ I mean,” answered this woman in a 
coarse dimity gown, with an old washed 
fichu about her beautiful neck, “ that the 
Sergeant Vachoux was blind, that he was 
crippled, that he was very poor, that he had 
nothing to live for, nothing to which to look 
forward. Who would read his petition, who 
would grant him his pension ? I told him 
what was not true. I said your Majesty had 
favourably considered his petition, and he 
believes that you accorded him the grade of 
lieutenant. I said that your Majesty had 
given him a pension. I earn a few francs by 
fine embroidery, and he takes those because 
he thinks they are his pension.” 
The Emperor waited until Marie-Claire 
stopped speaking. He stood quite a minute 
glowering at her, then he snapped his thumb 
and finger with a gesture of disdain. 
“ You are a woman,” he assured her, 
harshly, and therefore you can make out a 
good case for yourself. C esl bien, your 
devotion to the old man, magnifique if you 
will, superbe . Voyons ! it makes a picture, 
a picture doubtless calculated to move the 
heart. But I know you women. You can 
always turn and twist, just as you can always 
cry. Why have you not begun to shed tears ? 
Josephine always weeps when she is found 
out. Bah ! ” he went on, without waiting 
for an answer to his own question. tl Whether 
you cry or you do not, you have told lies, 
mademoiselle : je vous le dis 9 you told lies.” 
“ I do not deny that, your Majesty,” 
answered Marie-Claire. a 1 told the Sergeant 
Vachoux what was not true. But he was 
happy every day, every hour, until •” 
