and blushed a little. The Minister turned and saw Albert Styvens
standing with nervous interest--gazing like one bewitched at the
enchanting maiden.

"Let me present to you Count Albert Styvens."

Esperance inclined her head a little and drew instinctively nearer to
Mlle. Frahender.

The Count had not moved. The Prince led him away as soon as he had
made his adieux to the young girl and the elder lady.

"Are you ill or insane?" he asked his Secretary.

"Insane, yes; I think I must be going insane," murmured the young man
in a choking voice.

The play was in four acts, there were still two to come. The audience
seemed to watch in a delirium of delight, and when the last curtain
dropped, they called Esperance back eight times, and demanded the
author.

In spite of all the talent displayed by Sardou as author, there was
much enthusiasm and an unconscious gratitude in him as the discoverer
of a new sensation.... No comet acclaimed by astronomers as capable of
doubling the harvest would have moved the populace as did the
description in all the papers of this new star in Paris.