y come when you would regret all your
self-denial, for a woman weighed down with a sense of her dishonor is a
heavy burden for a man to bear."

George de Croisenois did not understand her thoroughly.

"You do not trust me," said he. "You would be dishonored. Shall I not
share a portion of the world's censure? And, if you wish me, I will be
a dishonored man also. To-night I will cheat at play at the club,
be detected, and leave the room an outcast from the society of all
honorable men for the future. Fly with me to some distant land, and we
will live happily under whatever name you may choose."

"I must not listen to you," cried she wildly. "It is impossible now."

"Impossible!--and why? Tell me, I entreat you."

"Ah, George," sobbed she, "if you only knew----"

He placed his arm around her waist, and was about to press his lips on
that fair brow, when all at once he felt Marie shiver in his clasp,
and, raising one of her arms, point towards the door, which had opened
silently during their conversation, and upon the threshold of which
stood Norbert de Champdoce, gloomy and threatening.

The Marquis saw in an instant the terrible position in which his
insensate folly had placed the woman he loved.

"Do not come any nearer," said he, addressing Norbert; "remain where you
are."

A bitter laugh from the Duke made him realize the folly of his command.
He supported the Duchess to a couch, and seated her upon it. She
recovered consciousness almost immediately, and, as she opened her eyes,
George read in them the most perfect forgiveness for the man who had
ruined her life and hopes.

This look, and the fond assurance conveyed in it, restored all George's
coolness and self-possession, and he turned towards Norbert.

"However compromising appearances may seem, I am the only one deserving
punishment; the Duchess has nothing to reproach herself with in any way;
it was without her knowledge, and without any encouragement from her,
that I dared to enter this house, knowing as I did that the servants
were all absent."

Norbert, however, still maintained the same gloomy silence. He too had
need to collect his thoughts. As he ascended the stairs he knew that
he should find the Duchess with a lover, but he had not calculated
upon that lover being George de Croisenois, a man whom he loathed
and detested more than any one that he was in the habit of meeting in
society. When he recognized George, it was with the utmost difficu