t out of the world? but
with you it is different. You--"

Norbert wrung his hands in abject despair; the sublime devotion of the
old servant showed how firmly Jean believed in his criminality. He was
about to assert his innocence further, when the loud sound of a closing
door was heard above stairs.

"Hush!" said the old man; "some one approaches; we must not be seen
whispering together like two plotters, for their suspicions would be
certainly awakened; and I fear that my face or your eyes will reveal the
secret. Quick, go upstairs, and endeavor, as soon as possible, to resume
your calmness. I beg you not to compromise the honor of your name, which
is in deadly peril."

Without another word Norbert obeyed. His father was alone, and only
the man to whom Jean had delegated the task of watcher remained by his
bedside. At the sight of his young master he rose.

"The prescription which the doctor ordered to be made up has arrived,"
said he. "I have administered a dose to the Duke, and it seems to me
that the result has been favorable."

Norbert drew up a heavy arm-chair to the foot of the bed, and took his
seat upon it. From this position he could see his father's face. His
brain was dazed, and it was with the utmost difficulty that he could
recall the chain of events which had drawn him towards the abyss into
which he had so nearly been precipitated.

The veil had been taken from his eyes, and he now saw with perfect
clearness and seemed again to hear his father's voice as it roughly
warned him that the woman he loved was a mere plotter, who cared not
for him, but was scheming for his fortune and his name. Then he had been
furiously indignant and looked upon the words as almost blasphemous, but
now he saw that his father was right. How was it that he had not before
seen that Diana was flinging herself in his way, and that all her
affected openness and simplicity were merely the perfections of art, and
that step by step she had led him to the brink of the terrible precipice
which yawned before him? The whole hideous part as played by Daumon was
no longer a sealed book to him. She whom he had looked on as a pure and
innocent girl was merely the accomplice of a scheming villain like the
Counsellor, and after exciting his hatred and anger almost to madness,
had placed the poison which was to take his father's life in his hands.
A cold shiver ran through him as he realized this, and all his ardent
love for Diana de Laure