The two men ran rapidly through the night's telegrams.
"Deplorably empty!" remarked the editorial secretary. "But where am I to send you?... Ah, now I have it! That article of yours on the rue Norvins affair, yesterday evening, was interesting—it made the others squirm, I know! Isn't there anything more to be got out of that story?"
"What do you want?"
"Can't you stick in something just a little bit scandalous about the Baroness de Vibray? Or about Dollon? About no matter whom, in fact? After all, it's our one and only crime to-day, and you must put in something under that head!..."
Jérôme Fandor seemed to hesitate.
"Would you like me to rake up the past—refer to what happened before?"
"What past?"
"Come now, you must have an inkling of what I refer to!"
"Not I!"
"Ah, my dear fellow, it will not be the first time we have had to mention these personages in our columns!... Just cast your mind back to the Gurn affair!..."