"My wife," said he to himself, "is an honorable and virtuous woman, and it is some discharged menial who has taken this cowardly mode of revenge." A closer inspection of the letter seemed to show him that the faults in caligraphy were intentional.

The concluding portion of the letter excited his attention, and, calling Jean, he asked him if it was true that all the servants would be absent from the house to-day.
"There will be none there this evening; not until late at night," answered the old man.
"And why, pray ?" "Have you forgotten, your Grace, that the first coachman is going to be married, and the Duchess was good enough to say that all might go to the wedding dinner and ball, as long as some one remained at the porter's lodge ?" After the first outburst, Norbert affected an air of calmness, and laughed at the idea of having permitted himself to be disturbed for so trivial a cause.

But this was mere pretence, for doubt and suspicion had entered his soul, and no power on earth could expel them.

"Why should not my wife be unfaithful to me ?" thought Norbert.

"I give her credit for being honorable and right-minded, but then all deceived husbands have the same idea.