"Is that hard work you're doing, my good man?"
Not daring to raise his head, he stammered a few words in Italian.
"Don't you speak French?"
"No, signora."
"Have you any children?"
"Si, signora."
"Then take this for them," slipping a louis into his hand. "Tell them that it comes from a lady who is very fond of children." And the Empress walked away.
That same evening, seeing me at the hotel, she came up to me with laughing eyes:
"Well, M. Paoli, you may scold me, if you like. I have been disobedient. I went along the Mentone road to-day and I talked to a navvy."
It was my faithful Corsican.