"I was wondering who'd
pay for it."
"Oh, you were, eh?" said Napoleon. "Well, wonder no more. Get out
your books."
The hatter did so.
"Now charge it," said Napoleon.
"To whom?" asked the hatter.
"Those eminent financiers, Profit & Loss," said Napoleon, with a
laugh, as he left the shop. "That's what I call a most successful
hat-talk," he added, as he told Bourrienne of the incident later in
the day.
"How jealous they all are!" said Bourrienne. "The idea of your
having a swelled head is ridiculous."
"Of course," said Napoleon; "all I've got is a proper realization of
'Whom I Am,' as they say in Boston. But wait, my boy, wait. When I
put a crown on my head--"
What Bonaparte would have said will never be known, for at that
moment the general's servant announced Mme. Sans Gene, his former
laundress, and that celebrated woman, unconventional as ever, stalked
into the room. Napoleon looked at her coldly.
"You are--?" he queried.
"Your former laundress," she replied.
"Ah, and you want--?"
"My pay," she retorted.
"I am sorry, madame," said the General, "but the expenses of my
Italian tour have been very great, and I am penniless.
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