(Pointing
to her breast.)
LADY (with pretty piteousness). General: I only want to keep one
little private letter. Only one. Let me have it.
NAPOLEON (cold and stern). Is that a reasonable demand, madam?
LADY (encouraged by his not refusing point blank). No; but that
is why you must grant it. Are your own demands reasonable?
thousands of lives for the sake of your victories, your
ambitions, your destiny! And what I ask is such a little thing.
And I am only a weak woman, and you a brave man. (She looks at
him with her eyes full of tender pleading and is about to kneel
to him again.)
NAPOLEON (brusquely). Get up, get up. (He turns moodily away and
takes a turn across the room, pausing for a moment to say, over
his shoulder) You're talking nonsense; and you know it. (She gets
up and sits down in almost listless despair on the couch. When he
turns and sees her there, he feels that his victory is complete,
and that he may now indulge in a little play with his victim. He
comes back and sits beside her. She looks alarmed and moves a
little away from him; but a ray of rallying hope beams from her
eye.
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