第62章

In an hour he received a reply, merely containing these words:--"Can you account for M.de Mussidan's sudden determination to spend the winter in Italy? We leave this evening.Farewell.--D."And so she, too, had abandoned him, taking with her all the hopes he had in the world.Still, however, his infatuation held its sway over him, and he forced himself to believe that she felt this separation as keenly as he did.

Some five days afterwards, when the Duchess de Champdoce had been pronounced out of immediate danger, one of the doctors took him mysteriously aside.He said that he wanted to inform the Duke of a startling, but he hoped a welcome piece of intelligence--that the Duchess de Champdoce was in the way to present the Duke with an heir to his title and estates.

It was the knowledge of this that had decided her not to leave her husband's roof, and had steeled her heart against George's entreaties.

She had hesitated, and had almost yielded to the feelings of her heart, when this thought troubled her.

Unfortunately for herself, she had not disclosed her condition to her husband, and, at the news, all Norbert's former suspicions revived, and his wrath rose once more to an extraordinary height.His lips grew pale, and his eyes blazed with fury.

"Thank you, doctor!" exclaimed he."Of course, the news is very welcome.Good-by.I must go to the Duchess at once."Instead of going to his wife, Norbert went and locked himself up in his own private apartment.He had need to be alone, in order to look this fresh complication more fully in the face, and the more he reflected, the more convinced was he that he had been the dupe of a guilty woman.He had begun by doubting, and he ended by being convinced that the child was not his.Was he to accept this degraded position, and rear up as his own the child of George de Croisenois?

The child would grow up under his own roof-tree, bear his name, and finally inherit his title and gigantic fortune."Never," muttered he.

"No, never; for sooner than that, I will crush the life out of it with my own hands!"The more he thought how he should have to deceive the world by feigning love and lavishing caresses upon this interloping child, the more he felt that it would be impossible to perform his task.He had, however, much to do at present.The sudden and mysterious disappearance of George de Croisenois had created much stir and excitement in Paris, and the letter which had been posed by the agent dispatched by Jean, instead of explaining matters, had only deepened the mystery and caused fresh grounds of surprise to arise in the minds of the friends of the Marquis and the police authorities.But the disappearance of the Marquis was only a nine days' wonder after all.

Some other strange event excited the attention of the fickle public, and George de Croisenois' name was no longer in every one's mouth.

Norbert breathed freely once more, for he felt his secret was safe.

Diana de Mussidan had now been absent for three months and had not vouchsafed him a single line.A river of blood flowed between him and his wife.Among all his acquaintances he had not one friend on whom he could rely, and his reckless life of debauchery and dissipation began to weary him.His thoughts were always fixed upon this coming child.

How could he ever bear to bring it up as if it were his own? He had thought over many plans, but always trusted to the first one he had conceived.This was to procure an infant, it mattered not where or by what means, and substitute it for the new-born child of his wife.As time rolled on, he became more imbued with this idea, and at length he summoned Jean to him, that faithful old man, who served his master so truly out of affection to the house of Champdoce.

For the first time Jean raised an objection to his master's proposal, declaring that such an act would bring shame and misery upon all concerned in it; but when he found that Norbert was determined, and that, if he refused, his master would employ some less scrupulous agent, he, with tears in his eyes and a tremor in his voice, promised obedience.

About a month later, Jean came to his master and suggested that it would be best the /accouchement/ of the Duchess should take place at a chateau belonging to the Champdoce family near Montroire, and that this once done, he, Jean would arrange everything.The removal was effected almost at once, and the Duchess, who was a mere shadow of her former self, made no opposition.She and Norbert lived together as perfect strangers.Sometimes a week would elapse without their meeting; and if they had occasion to communicate, it was done by letter.

The estate to which Norbert had conducted the Duchess was admirably adapted for his purpose.The unhappy woman was entirely alone in the world, and had no one to whom she could apply for protection or advice.Her father, the Count de Puymandour, had died suddenly a month before, owing to chagrin caused by his defeat when a candidate for a seat in the Chamber.The brief note from the despairing mother, in which followed the words, "Have mercy! Give me back my child!" hardly describes the terrible events that occurred in the lonely Chateau to which Norbert had conducted his innocent victim.

The child of the Duchess de Champdoce had been placed by Jean in the Foundling Hospital at Vendome, while the infant that was baptized with the grandiloquent names of Anne Rene, Gontran de Duepair, Marquis de Champdoce, was the bastard child of a girl living near Montroire, who was known in the neighborhood as "The Witch."