noon
`` That is not all , Madame , '' said an old officer to the countess . `` The accounts from Mayence are threatening . Large bodies of Prussian troops are reported on the march from the eastward . The telegraph has been actively at work since noon , and several couriers have been sent off from the War Office . '' `` What is to come next ? '' said the countess , sighing , as she thought of Paris once more deserted by its gay Court and brilliant crowd of officers , the only society of the period . `` What next , Madame ? ''