English. And nobody spoke. As the guests came down by ones and twos
to breakfast, the lady near the door stopped each of them: “I suppose
you’ve heard--” But none of them had. I was her sole failure. At length
a retired military officer came down, already informed. “Where does
this news come from?” he demanded of the room, impatiently, cautiously,
half-incredulously, as one who would hesitate to trust any information
that he had not seen in a London daily. With a single inflection of his
commanding voice he wiped out the whole Press of Italy--that country of
excellent newspapers. He got little answer. We all sat silent.