“Yes,” continued Norbert, the tears starting to his eyes, “this is just how I am situated.  My destiny has been marked out for me, and I am helpless to alter it.  I had better a thousand times be lying under the cold greensward, than vegetate thus above ground.”

The peculiar smile on Daumon’s lips caused him to pause in his complaint.

“Perhaps,” he went on, “you think that I am childish in talking thus?”

“Not at all, Marquis, you have suffered too deeply; but forgive me if I say that you are foolish to despond so much over the future that lies before you.”

“Future!” repeated Norbert angrily, “what is the use of speaking to me of the future, when I may be kept in this horrible servitude for the next thirty years?  My father is still hale and hearty.”

“What of that?  You will be of age soon, and then you will have full right to claim your mother’s fortune.”

The extreme surprise displayed by Norbert at this intelligence convinced the Counsellor that he was much more unsophisticated than he had supposed him to be.

“A man,” continued he, “can, when he attains his majority, dispose of his inheritance as he thinks fit, and your mother’s fortune will render you independent of your father.”

“But I should never dare to claim it; how could I venture to do so?”

“You need not make the application personally; your solicitor would manage all that for you; but, of course, you must wait until you are of age.”

“But I cannot wait until then,” said Norbert; “I must at once free myself from this tyranny.”

“Luckily there are ways.”

“Do you really think so, Daumon?”

“Yes, and I will show you what is done every day.  Nothing is more common in noble families.  Would you like to be a soldier?”

“No, I do not care for that, and yet——­”

“That is your last resource, Marquis.  First, then, we could lay a plaint before the court.”

“A plaint?”

“Certainly.  Do you suppose that our laws do not provide for such a case as a father exceeding the proper bounds of parental authority?  Tell me, has the Duke, your father, ever struck you?”

“Never once.”

“Well, that is almost a pity.  We will say that your father’s property is worth two millions, and yet you derive so slight a benefit from this that you are known everywhere as the ’Young Savage of Champdoce’!”

Norbert started to his feet.

“Who dares speak of me like that?” said he furiously.  “Tell me his name.”

This outburst of passion did not in the smallest degree discompose Daumon.

“Your father has many enemies, Marquis,” he resumed, “for his manners are overbearing and exacting; but you have many friends, and among them all you will find none more devoted than myself, humble though my position may be.  Many ladies of high rank take a great interest in you.  Only a day or two ago some persons were speaking of you in the presence of Mademoiselle de Laurebourg, and she blushed crimson at your name.  Do you know Mademoiselle Diana?”