LADY (still at the sideboard). What does all this mean, General?

NAPOLEON. He will not find your brother.

LADY. Of course not. There's no such person.

NAPOLEON. The despatches will be irrecoverably lost.

LADY. Nonsense! They are inside your coat.

NAPOLEON. You will find it hard, I think, to prove that wild
statement. (The Lady starts. He adds, with clinching emphasis)
Those papers are lost.

LADY (anxiously, advancing to the corner of the table). And that
unfortunate young man's career will be sacrificed.

NAPOLEON. HIS career! The fellow is not worth the gunpowder it
would cost to have him shot. (He turns contemptuously and goes to
the hearth, where he stands with his back to her.)

LADY (wistfully). You are very hard. Men and women are nothing to
you but things to be used, even if they are broken in the use.

NAPOLEON (turning on her). Which of us has broken this fellow--I
or you? Who tricked him out of the despatches? Did you think of
his career then?

LADY (naively concerned about him). Oh, I never thought of that.