human
Now do begin at once! exclaimed Sue.
gpt
I never spent such an awful, maddening day of suspense in my life. Don't wait a minute!
human
I'm just as crazy to tell you as you are to hear it, responded Carol.
gpt
Do you think _I_ haven't been boiling with impatience all day? Well, here goes! Susette, it's the queerest thing in the world, the way I happened across this. It's all through Miss Cullingford. That day, after I'd described the picture to her as well as I could, I remember that she looked puzzled and said, 'That somehow sounds familiar to me.' But I didn't think anything of the remark at the time, because I was too interested in what she was going to say about my poem, and I soon forgot it. But yesterday, when I went to her after school, she asked me if I'd recognize the picture if I saw it again, and I said that of course I would. Then she suddenly drew a book out of her desk and opened it at a certain page. And, Sue, will you believe me when I tell you? There was a copy of that _very same picture_, right before my eyes!
human
Well, for goodness sake, tell me who it was, or I'll die of curiosity!
gpt
That's just what I don't know, Carol answered.
human
But I have the book here. It belongs to Miss Cullingford, and she offered to lend it to me. Of course, when I saw it, I acted surprised, but not half as much so as I felt, because I didn't want to have to tell her anything about Louis. I only said that it seemed to be the same picture, and she said it must have been some copy that I'd seen, for the portrait was a famous one, painted by a famous artist. Then she went on to criticize my poem, and made one or two suggestions about some little changes in it. She said that if I made them, she thought the poem stood a fair chance of winning the prize. Then she offered to lend me the book to take home and read, because she thought I might be interested in it. She little knew how _desperately_ interested I was! But come! Let's look at it for ourselves, and see if we can find out anything we'd like to know.
gpt
Only of course the picture was in black and white, not colored as in the oil-painting. But it was the _same_; you couldn't mistake it. And underneath the portrait it said,
human
The Dauphin of France.
gpt
Carol, said Sue, after she'd read it,
human
I haven't the faintest idea, answered the other.
gpt
I never heard the word before, and I haven't had a chance to look it up anywhere. It looks something like the word 'dolphin.' Perhaps it's the French for it. And yet I don't think that is likely. A dolphin is some kind of a sea-creature, like a porpoise, isn't it? So it _couldn't_ have any such meaning here.
human
But what is this book?
gpt
Memoirs of Madame Lebrun.