I am only fit to manage my affairs while all is tranquil and in order.

Tell me--as man to man--will things remain tranquil and in order?
You know as well as I do that the Emperor has a malady from which there is no recovery.

And the Empress, ah! yes--she is a clever woman.

She has spirit.

It is not every woman who would take this journey to Egypt to open the Suez Canal and make that great enterprise a French undertaking.