"Impossible!" cried she. "Are you not making a mistake?"
The Counsellor gave a quiet smile of triumph.
"I am not mistaken," said he, and calmly pointed out in the code the provision to which he had alluded. As Diana read the pa.s.sage to which his finger pointed, he watched her as a cat watches a mouse.
"After all, what does it matter to me?" remarked Diana, making an effort to recover herself. "I will speak about this poor woman"s case to my father;" and, with her limbs bending under her, she left the room.
As Daumon returned from accompanying her to the door, the Counsellor rubbed his hands.
"Things are getting decidedly warm," muttered he.
He felt that he must gain some further information, and this he could not get from Norbert. It would be also as well, he thought, to tell the sheriff to stay proceedings relative to the Widow Rouleau. By this means he might secure another interview with Mademoiselle de Laurebourg, and perhaps win the poor girl"s confidence.
As Diana rode home, she abandoned herself to the grief which the intelligence that she had just heard had caused her, for the foresight of the framers of the law had rendered all her deeply laid plans of no avail.
"The Duke of Champdoce," murmured she to herself, "will never consent to his son"s marriage with so scantily a dowered woman as I am; but as soon as Norbert is of age he can marry me, in spite of all his father"s opposition; but, oh! "tis a dreary time to wait."
For a moment she dared to think of the possible death of the old man; but she shuddered as she remembered how strong and healthy he was, and felt that the frail edifice of her hope had been crushed into ten thousand atoms. For all this, however, she did not lose courage. She was not one of those women who, at the first check, beat a retreat. She had not yet decided upon a fresh point of departure, but she had fully made up her mind that she would gain the victory. The first thing was to see Norbert with as little delay as possible. Just then the carriage pulled up at the widow"s cottage, which she entered hastily.
"I have seen Daumon," said she. "Do not be alarmed; all matters will be arranged shortly."
Then, without listening to the thanks and blessings which the poor woman showered upon her, she said,--
"Give me a piece of paper to write on," and, standing near the cas.e.m.e.nt, she wrote in pencil on a soiled sc.r.a.p of paper the following words:--
"Diana would, perhaps, have been at the usual meeting place to-day, in spite of the weather, had she not been compelled to visit a poor woman in a contrary direction. Upon the same business, she will have to call to-morrow at the house of a man called Daumon."
She folded the note and said,--
"This letter must be taken at once to M. Norbert de Champdoce. Who will carry it?"
Francoise had made a smock frock for one of the farm servants at Champdoce, and the delivery of it formed a good excuse for going up to the Chateau, and she willingly undertook the errand.
The next day, in the midst of a heavy shower of rain, Norbert made his appearance at Daumon"s office, saying, as a pretext for his visit, that he had exhausted his stock of money, and required a fresh supply. He too was feeling very unhappy, for he feared that this father might entertain matrimonial designs for him which would be utterly opposed to his pa.s.sion for Mademoiselle de Laurebourg.
Had 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 a.s.sistance 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 a.s.signation 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 seclusion in a convent?"
Daumon shook with laughter, as he kept his ear closely to the keyhole.
"Good business," muttered he. "Not so bad. Here"s a little girl from a convent. She has a clever brain and a glib tongue, and under my tuition would be a perfect wonder. If this country b.o.o.by does not make an open declaration at once, I wonder what her next move will be?"
"And you hesitated," said Norbert reproachfully. "Remember you may escape from the walls of the convent, but not from the bonds of an ill-a.s.sorted marriage."
Diana, who looked more beautiful than ever in her despair, wrung her hands.
"What reason can I give to my father for declining this offer?" said she. "Every one knows that I am almost portionless, and that I am sacrificed to my brother, immolated upon the altar erected before the cruel idol of family pride; and how dare I refuse a suitable offer when one is made for my hand?"
"Have you forgotten me?" cried Norbert. "Have you no love for me?
"Ah, my poor friend, you are no more free than I am."
"Then you look on me as a mere weak boy?" asked he, biting his lips.
"Your father is very powerful," answered she in tones of the deepest resignation; "his determination is inflexible, and his will inexorable.
You are completely in his power."
"What do I care for my father?" cried the young man fiercely. "Am not I a Champdoce too? Woe be to any one, father or stranger, who comes between me and the woman I love devotedly; for I do love you, Diana, and no mortal man shall take you from me."
He clasped Diana to his breast, and pressed a loving kiss upon her lips.
"Aha," muttered Daumon, who had lost nothing from his post of espial, "this is worth fifty thousand francs at least to me."
For a moment Diana remained clasped in her lover"s embrace, and then, with a faint cry, released herself from him. She then felt that she loved him, and his kiss and caresses sent a thrill like liquid fire through her veins. She was half pleased and half terrified. She feared him, but she feared herself more.
"What, Diana! Would you refuse me?" asked he, after a moment"s pause.
"Do you refuse me, when I implore you to be my wife, and to share my name with me? Will you not be the d.u.c.h.ess of Champdoce?"
Diana only replied with a glance; but if her eyes spoke plainly, that look said "Yes."
"Why, then," returned Norbert, "should we alarm ourselves with empty phantoms? Do you not trust me? My father may certainly oppose my plans, but before long I shall escape from his tyrannical sway, for I shall be of age."
"Ah, Norbert," returned she sadly, "you are feeding upon vain hopes.
You must be twenty-five years of age before you can marry and give the shelter of your name to the woman whom you have chosen for your wife."
This was exactly the explanation for which Daumon had been waiting.