Norbert, "what is it that you can see in this sneering
dandy who is always hanging about you?"

But Diana, with a meaning smile, always made the same reply,--

"You ask too much; but some time you will learn all."

Every day she contrived, when with the Duchess, to turn the conversation
skilfully upon George de Croisenois, and she had in a manner accustomed
Marie to look certain possibilities straight in the face, from the very
idea of which she would a few months back have recoiled with horror.
This point once gained, Madame de Mussidan believed that the moment had
arrived to bring the former lovers together again, and fancied that one
sudden and unexpected encounter would advance matters much more quickly
than all her half-veiled insinuations. One day, therefore, when the
Duchess had called on her friend, on entering the drawing-room, she
found it only tenanted by George de Croisenois. An exclamation of
astonishment fell from the lips of both as their eyes met; the cheek
of each grew pale. The Duchess, overcome by her feelings, sank
half-fainting into a chair near the door.

"Ah," murmured he, scarcely knowing the meaning of the words he uttered,
"I had every confidence in you, and you have forgotten me."

"You do not believe the words you have just spoken," returned the
Duchess haughtily; "but," she added in softer accents, "what could I do?
I may have been weak in obeying my father, but for all that I have never
forgotten the past."

Madame de Mussidan, who had stationed herself behind the closed door,
caught every word, and a gleam of diabolical triumph flashed from her
eyes. She felt sure that an interview which began in this manner would
be certain to be repeated, and she was not in error. She soon saw that
by some tacit understanding the Duchess and George contrived to meet
constantly at her house, and this she carefully abstained from noticing.
Things were working exactly as she desired and she waited, for she could
well afford to do so, knowing that the impending crash could not long be
delayed.

CHAPTER XV.

A STAB IN THE DARK.

September had now arrived; and though the weather was very bad, the Duke
de Champdoce, accompanied by his faithful old servant, Jean, left Paris
on a visit to his training stables. Having had a serious difference with
Diana, he had made up his mind to try whether a long absence on his part
would not have the effect of reducing her to submission, and at the
same time rem