GIUSEPPE (rushing forward and seizing his right arm.) What are
you thinking of, lieutenant? It's a lady: don't you hear that
it's a woman's voice?

LIEUTENANT. It's HIS voice, I tell you. Let me go. (He breaks
away, and rushes to the inner door. It opens in his face; and the
Strange Lady steps in. She is a very attractive lady, tall and
extraordinarily graceful, with a delicately intelligent,
apprehensive, questioning face--perception in the brow,
sensitiveness in the nostrils, character in the chin: all keen,
refined, and original. She is very feminine, but by no means
weak: the lithe, tender figure is hung on a strong frame: the
hands and feet, neck and shoulders, are no fragile ornaments, but
of full size in proportion to her stature, which considerably
exceeds that of Napoleon and the innkeeper, and leaves her at no
disadvantage with the lieutenant. Only her elegance and radiant
charm keep the secret of her size and strength. She is not,
judging by her dress, an admirer of the latest fashions of the
Directory; or perhaps she uses up her old dresses for travelling.
At all events she wears no jacket with extravagant lappels, no
Greco-Tallien sham chiton, nothing, indeed, that the Princesse de
Lamballe might not have worn. Her dress of flowered silk is long
waisted, with a Watteau pleat behind, but with the paniers
reduced to mere rudiments, as she is too tall for them. It is cut
low in the neck, where it is eked out by a creamy fichu. She is
fair, with golden brown hair and grey eyes.

She enters with the self-possession of a woman accustomed to the
privileges of rank and beauty. The innkeeper, who has excellent
natural manners, is highly appreciative of her. Napoleon, on whom