with extreme
prudence. He had not given up his views regarding his son's marriage
with Mademoiselle de Puymandour. No; he would sooner have resigned life
itself, but he felt that he must renounce violence, and gain his ends by
diplomacy. The first thing to be done was to get Norbert to return
home, and the father greatly doubted whether the son would do so. While
thinking over these things, with a settled gloom upon his face, one of
the servants came running up to him with the news of Norbert's return.

"I hold him at last," muttered he, and hastened on to the Chateau.

When the Duke entered the dining-room, Norbert did not rise from his
seat, and the Duke was disagreeably impressed by this breach of the
rules of domestic etiquette.

"On my word," thought he, "it would appear that the young booby thinks
that he owes me no kind of duty whatever."

He did not, however, allow his anger to be manifest in his features;
besides, the sight of the blood, with which his son's face was still
smeared, caused him to feel excessively uncomfortable.

"Norbert, my son," said he, "are you suffering? Why have you not had
that cut attended to?"

The young man made no reply, and the Duke continued,--

"Why have you not washed the blood away? Is it left there as a reproach
to me? There is no need for that, I assure you; for deeply do I deplore
my violence."

Norbert still made no answer, and the Duke became more and more
embarrassed. To give himself time for reflection, more than because he
was thirsty, he took a glass, and filled it from his own special bottle.

Norbert trembled from head to foot as he saw this act.

"Come, my son," continued the Duke, "just try if you cannot find some
palliation for what your old father has done. I am ready to ask your
forgiveness, and to apologize, for a man of honor is never ashamed to
acknowledge when he has been in the wrong."

He raised his glass, and raised it up to the light half mechanically.
Norbert held his breath; the whole world seemed turning round.

"It is hard, very hard," continued the Duke, "for a father thus to
humiliate himself in vain before his son."

It was useless for Norbert to turn away his head; he saw the Duke place
the glass to his lips. He was about to drink, but the young man could
endure it no longer, and with a bound he sprang forward, snatched the
glass from his father's hand, and hurled it from the window, shouting in
a voice utterly unlike his own,--