“I thank you sincerely,” faltered Diana.

“Yesterday,” the young man went on, “I passed the whole day here.  Are you angry with me for my stupidity?  I had thought that perhaps you had noticed my anxiety, and might have deigned to——­”

He stopped short, terrified at his own audacity.

“Yesterday,” returned Diana with the most ingenuous air in the world, and not appearing to perceive the young man’s embarrassment, “I was detained at home by my mother.”

“Yes,” replied he, “for the past two days your form, lying senseless and bleeding on the ground, has ever been before my eyes, for I felt as if I were a murderer.  I shall always see your pale, white face, and how, when I raised up your head it rested on my arm for a moment, and all the rapture—­”

“You must not talk like that, Marquis,” interrupted Diana, but she spoke in such a low tone that Norbert did not hear her and went on,—­

“When I saw you yesterday my feelings so overpowered me that I could not put them into words; but as soon as you had left me, it appeared as if all grew dark around me, and throwing myself on my knees, I searched for the tiny leaden pellet that might have caused your death.  I at last found it, and no treasure upon earth will ever be more prized by me.”

To avoid showing the gleam of joy that flashed from her eyes, Diana was compelled to turn her head on one side.

“Forgive me, mademoiselle,” said Norbert, in despair, as he noticed this movement; “forgive me if I have offended you.  Could you but know how dreary my past life has been, you would pardon me.  It seemed to me, the very moment that I saw you, I had found a woman who would feel some slight interest in me, and that for her sweet compassion I would devote my whole life to her.  But now I see how mad and foolish I have been, and I am plunged into the depths ‘of despair.’”

She accompanied these words with a glance sufficiently tender to restore all Norbert’s courage.

“Ah, mademoiselle,” said he; “do not trifle with me, for that would be too cruel.”

She let her head droop on her bosom, and, falling upon his knees, he poured a stream of impassioned kisses upon her hands.  Diana felt herself swept away by this stream of passion; she gasped, and her fingers trembled, as she found that she was trapped in the same snare that she had set for another.  Her reason warned her that she must bring this dangerous interview to a conclusion.

“I am forgetting all about my poor pensioners,” said she.

“Ah, if I might but accompany you!”

“And so you may, but you must walk fast.”

It is quite true that great events spring from very trivial sources; and had Diana gone to visit La Besson, Norbert might have heard something concerning Daumon that would have put him on his guard; but, unfortunately, to-day Diana was bound on a visit to an old woman in another part of the parish.