ad not the inexorable old man once said, "You will marry a woman of
wealth?" But in the event of this matter being brought up, Norbert swore
that he would no longer be obedient, but would resist to the last; and
he calculated on receiving assistance from Daumon. He was on the point
of referring to this matter, when a carriage drew up at the door of the
cottage, and Mademoiselle de Laurebourg descended from it. Daumon at
once saw how matters stood, and wasted no time in addressing Diana.

"The sheriff will stop proceedings," said he. "I can show you his letter
to that effect."

He turned away, and searched as diligently for the letter as if it had
existed anywhere except in his own imagination.

"Dear me," said he at length. "I cannot find it. I must have left it in
the other room. I have so much to do, that really there are times when
I forget everything. I must find it, however. Excuse me, I will be back
immediately."

His sudden departure from the room had been a mere matter of
calculation; for, guessing that an assignation had been planned,
he thought that he might know what took place at it by a little
eavesdropping. He therefore applied first his ear and then his eye to
the keyhole, and by these means acquired all the information he desired.

A moment of privacy with the object of his affections seemed to Norbert
an inestimable boon. When Diana had first entered, he was horrified at
the terrible alteration that had taken place in the expression of her
face. He seized her hand, which she made no effort to withdraw, and
gazed fixedly into her eyes.

"Tell me," murmured he in accents of love and tenderness, "what it is
that has gone wrong."

Diana sighed, then a tear coursed slowly down her cheek. Norbert was in
the deepest despair at these signs of grief.

"Great heavens!" cried he. "Will you not trust me? Am not I your truest
and most devoted friend?"

At first she refused to answer him, but at length she yielded to
his entreaties, and confessed that the evening before her father had
informed her that a young man had sought her hand in marriage, and one
who was a perfectly eligible suitor.

Norbert listened to this avowal, trembling from head to foot, with a
sudden access of jealousy.

"And did you make no objections?" asked he.

"How could I?" retorted she. "What can a girl do in opposition to the
will of all her family, when she has to choose between the alternative
that she loathes, or a life-long