To-night I will cheat at play at the club, be detected, and leave the room an outcast from the society of all honorable men for the future.

Fly with me to some distant land, and we will live happily under whatever name you may choose." "I must not listen to you," cried she wildly.

"It is impossible now." "Impossible!--and why?
Tell me, I entreat you." "Ah, George," sobbed she, "if you only knew----" He placed his arm around her waist, and was about to press his lips on that fair brow, when all at once he felt Marie shiver in his clasp, and, raising one of her arms, point towards the door, which had opened silently during their conversation, and upon the threshold of which stood Norbert de Champdoce, gloomy and threatening.
The Marquis saw in an instant the terrible position in which his insensate folly had placed the woman he loved.
"Do not come any nearer," said he, addressing Norbert; "remain where you are." A bitter laugh from the Duke made him realize the folly of his command.
He supported the Duchess to a couch, and seated her upon it.

She recovered consciousness almost immediately, and, as she opened her eyes, George read in them the most perfect forgiveness for the man who had ruined her life and hopes.
This look, and the fond assurance conveyed in it, restored all George's coolness and self-possession, and he turned towards Norbert.
"However compromising appearances may seem, I am the only one deserving punishment; the Duchess has nothing to reproach herself with in any way; it was without her knowledge, and without any encouragement from her, that I dared to enter this house, knowing as I did that the servants were all absent." Norbert, however, still maintained the same gloomy silence.

He too had need to collect his thoughts.