"I have come to wish you joy," said I, not venturing to cross the threshold.
"To wish me joy?"
"You have not seen a morning paper?"
"A morning paper!"
And, echoing me thus, her color changed, and a strange vague look--it might be of hope, it might be of fear--came into her face.
"There is something in the Moniteur" I went on, smiling, 'that concerns you nearly."
"That concerns me?" she exclaimed. "Me? For Heaven's sake, speak plainly. I do not understand you. Has--has anything been discovered?"
"Yes--it has been discovered at the Académie Française that Mademoiselle Hortense Dufresnoy has written the best poem on Thermopylæ."
She drew a deep breath, pressed her hands tightly together, and murmured:--
"Alas! is that all?"