Georgiana had someone move the Récamier chaise longue into the church library. She felt that only by lying here could she think through the answers to certain questions.
Yet after lying down, she thought of nothing at all. Her mind was blank, filled with nothing but the urge to confess.
So she sent for Caprara. While waiting, she stared blankly at the ceiling frescoes.
Leon had told her to seek other women as examples. After much thought, even if she could not find good examples to emulate, she must not follow bad ones. Women from the previous regime, such as Madame du Barry and Madame de Pompadour, were cases in point.
Ancient China also had precedents of "the hen crowing at dawn." Perhaps she had interfered too much in state affairs.
Compared with Josephine, Georgiana felt she ought to understand Madame de Staël better. She had Sophie bring her that woman's writings and began to read and analyze them. Only by knowing oneself and one's enemy could one win every battle:
When the laws of a society can punish neither parents who abuse their authority nor husbands or wives who behave improperly, but merely prohibit divorce, then those laws are harsh only toward the victims. They merely shackle the victims. Such a society seemed to be saying, "I cannot guarantee your happiness, but I can at least make your misery last."
It seemed Madame de Staël, like Georgiana, was a woman opposed to the current divorce laws.
One wondered whether she had considered that Napoleon Bonaparte, who had enacted that law, was himself a victim of marriage.
Madame de Staël's views on the pressure of public opinion also differed from Georgiana's understanding.
Delphine had fallen in love with the young aristocrat Léonce, but he had already been engaged to Delphine's