yet
be your lot. You have passed through many trials. Have not all persons
their griefs? The only difference is in the greater or less fortitude of
soul with which one supports them. That which ought particularly to
soothe your grief is that every one shares it with you. There are none
who do not regret our poor Adele as much for themselves as for you.

"Your children mourn over your sorrows. Every thing announces in them an
excellent character, and a strong attachment for you. The more I see of
them the more I love them. Nevertheless, I do not spoil them. Feel easy
on their account. We follow exactly what you have prescribed for their
regimen and their studies. When they have done well during the week, I
invite them to breakfast and dine with me on the Sabbath. The proof that
they are in good health is that they have grown much. Napoleon had one
eye slightly inflamed yesterday from the sting of a gnat. He was not,
however, on that account, less well than usual. To-day it is no longer
manifest. It would not be worth mentioning, were we not in the habit of
rendering you an exact account of every thing which concerns them."

On the 6th of August Josephine wrote as follows:

"The beautiful days of summer have at last come with the month of
August. I hope that they will strengthen you, my dear daughter. Your
lungs will feel the influence of them, and the baths will do you much
more good. I see with pleasure that you have not forgotten the years of
your childhood, and you are very kind to your mother in recalling them
to her. I did right in making happy, too, children so good and so
affectionate, and they have since abundantly recompensed me for it. Your
children will do the same for you, my dear Hortense. Their hearts
resemble yours. They will never cease to love you. Their health is
wonderfully good, and they have never been more fresh and vigorous.

"The little _Oui Oui_ is always gallant and amiable to me. Two days ago,
in seeing Madame Tascher leave us, who went to join her husband at the
springs, he said to Madame Boucheporn:

"'She must love her husband very much indeed, to be willing, for him, to
leave my grandmother!'

"Do you not think that was charming? On the same day he went to walk in
the woods of Butard. As soon as he was in the grand avenue, he threw his
hat in the air, shouting, 'Oh, how I love beautiful nature!'[G]

[Footnote G: All will read with interest the above anecdotes of the
childhood of Lou