“Who is there?”
“It is I, Norbert; I, Diana.”
“What do you want?” asked Norbert in an agitated tone of voice. “What do you want to do here?”
She looked at him anxiously and hardly recognized his face, so great was the change that had come over it. It absolutely terrified her.
“Are you going to marry Mademoiselle de Puymandour?” asked she.
“Yes I am.”
“And yet you pretended to love me?”
“Yes, I loved you ardently, devotedly, with a love that drove me to crime; but you had no love; you cared but for rank and fortune.”
Diana raised her hands to heaven in an agony of despair.
“Should I be here at this hour if what you say is true?” asked she wildly. “My brother is dead, and I am as wealthy as you are, Norbert, and yet I am here. You accuse me of being mercenary, and for what reason? Was it because I refused to fly with you from my father’s house? Oh, Norbert, it was but the happiness of our future life that I strove to protect. It was——”