its cleverness, while she advised him not to waste his ability on works of imagination, when it could be so much better employed in politics.  Lucien was not thus to be repulsed.  He then addressed her in his own name, and she showed the letters to her husband, and asked his advice.  Monsieur Recamier was more politic than indignant.  His wife wished to forbid Lucien the house, but he feared that such extreme measures toward the brother of the First Consul might compromise, if not ruin, his bank.  He therefore advised her neither to encourage nor repulse him.  Lucien continued his attentions for a year,—­the absurd emphasis of his manners at times amusing Madame Recamier, while at others his violence excited her fears.  At last, becoming conscious that he was making himself ridiculous, he gave up the pursuit in despair.  Some time after he had discontinued his visits he sent a friend to demand his letters; but Madame Recamier refused to give them up.  He sent a second time, adding menace to persuasion; but she was firm in her refusal.  It was rumored that Lucien was a favored lover, and he was anxious to be so considered.  His own letters were the strongest proof to the contrary, and as such they were kept and guarded by Madame Recamier.  But the unpleasant gossip to which his attentions gave rise was a source of great annoyance to her.  If it was her first vexation, it was not the only one of the same kind.  Madame Lenormant makes no allusion, to any other, but in the lately published correspondence of Madame de Stael[C] we find among the letters to Madame Recamier one which consoles her under what was probably a somewhat similar trouble.  “I hear from Monsieur Hochet that you have a chagrin.  I hope by the time you have read this letter it will have passed away....  There is nothing to dread but truth and material persecution; beyond these two things enemies can do absolutely nothing.  And what an enemy! only a contemptible woman who is jealous of your beauty and purity united.”

It was at a fete given by Lucien that Madame Recamier had her first and only interview with the First Consul.  On entering the drawing-room, she mistook him for his brother Joseph, and bowed to him.  He returned her salutation with empressement mingled with surprise.  Looking at her closely, he spoke to Fouche, who leaned over her chair and whispered, “The First Consul finds you charming.”  When Lucien approached, Napoleon, who was no stranger to his brother’s passion, said aloud, “And I, too, would like to go to Clichy!” When dinner was announced, he rose and left the room alone, without offering his arm to any lady.  As Madame Recamier passed out, Eliza (Madame Bacciocchi), who did the honors in the absence of Madame Lucien, who was indisposed, requested her to take the seat next to the First Consul.  Madame Recamier did not understand her, and seated herself at a little distance, and on Cambaceres, the Second Consul, occupying the seat by her side, Napoleon