It now seems to me as if my suit were half gained." "Naturally, I understand it," replied Nani, who was still smiling with that keen, intelligent smile of his, sharpened by a touch of almost imperceptible irony.

And after a short pause he added in a very simple way: "The misfortune is that on the day before yesterday your book was condemned by the Congregation of the Index, which was convoked by its Secretary expressly for that purpose.

And the judgment will be laid before his Holiness, for him to sign it, on the day after to-morrow." Pierre looked at the prelate in bewilderment.

Had the old mansion fallen on his head he would not have felt more overcome.

What! was it all over?
His journey to Rome, the experiment he had come to attempt there, had resulted in that defeat, of which he was thus suddenly apprised amidst that betrothal _fete_.