fe. You must forget me; do you understand?
It is to tell you this that I am here. The other day, when I saw you
again, I lost my self-command. My heart leapt up at the sight of you,
and, fool that I was, I permitted you to see this; but base no hopes
on my weakness. I said to you, Let us be friends. It was a mere act of
madness. We can never be friends, and had better, therefore, treat each
other as strangers. Do you forget that lying tongues at Bevron accused
me of being your mistress? Do you think that this falsehood has not
reached my husband's ears? One day, when your name was mentioned in
his presence, I saw a gleam of hatred and jealousy in his eye. Great
heavens! should he, on my return, suspect that my hand had rested in
yours, he would expel me from his house like some guilty wretch! The
door of our house must remain for ever closed to you. I am miserable
indeed. Be a man; and if your heart still holds one atom of the love you
once bore for me, prove it by never seeking me again."

As she concluded she hurried away, leaving in Norbert's heart a more
deadly poison than the one she had endeavored to persuade the son to
administer to his father, the Duke de Champdoce. She knew each chord
that vibrated in his heart, and could play on it at will. She felt sure
that in a month he would again be her slave, and that she could exercise
over him a sway more despotic than she had yet done, and, in addition to
this, that he would assist her in executing a cruel scheme of revenge,
which she had long been plotting.

After having followed Diana about like her very shadow for several days,
Norbert at last ventured to approach her in the Champs Elysees. She was
angry, but not to such an extent that he feared to repeat his offence.
Then she wept, but her tears could not force him to avoid her. At first
her system of defence was very strong, then it gradually grew weaker.
She granted him another interview, and then two others followed. But
what were these meetings worth to him? They took place in a church or a
public gallery, in places where they could scarcely exchange a grasp of
the hand. At length she told him that she had thought of a place which
would render their interviews less perilous, but that she hardly dared
tell him where it was. He pressed her to tell him, and, by degrees, she
permitted herself to be persuaded. Her idea was to become the friend of
the Duchess of Champdoce.

Norbert now felt that she was more an an