Leaning against each other, we looked chastely at the red page where the day of my joining was written, and we spelled it all out as if we were learning to read.
Next day and the following days everybody went headlong to meet the newspapers.

We read in them--and under their different titles they were then all alike--that a great and unanimous upspringing was electrifying France, and the little crowd that we were felt itself also caught by the rush of enthusiasm and resolution.

We looked at each other with shining eyes of approval.

I, too, I heard myself cry, "At last!" All our patriotism rose to the surface.
Our quarter grew fevered.

We made speeches, we proclaimed the moral verities--or explained them.