Only
Constant, the faithful valet, ventured to intervene between his mistress
and the fatal door.
'If your Majesty will resume your seat I shall inform the Emperor that
you are here,' said he, with two deprecating hands outstretched.
'Ah, then he _is_ there!' she cried furiously. 'I see it all!
I understand it all! But I will expose him--I will reproach him with
his perfidy! Let me pass, Constant! How dare you stand in my way?'
'Allow me to announce you, your Majesty.'
'I shall announce myself.' With swift undulations of her beautiful
figure she darted past the protesting valet, parted the curtains, threw
open the door, and vanished into the next room.
She had seemed a creature full of fire and of spirit as, with a flush
which broke through the paint upon her cheeks, and with eyes which
gleamed with the just anger of an outraged wife, she forced her way into
her husband's presence. But she was a woman of change and impulse, full
of little squirts of courage and corresponding reactions into cowardice.
She had hardly vanished from our sight when there was a harsh roar, like
an angry beast, and next instant Josephine came flying into the room
again, with the Emperor, inarticulate with passion, raving at her heels.
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