As he ascended the stairs he knew that he should find the Duchess with a lover, but he had not calculated upon that lover being George de Croisenois, a man whom he loathed and detested more than any one that he was in the habit of meeting in society.

When he recognized George, it was with the utmost difficulty that he restrained himself from springing upon him and endeavoring to strangle him.

He had suspected this man of having gained Diana's affections, and now he found him in the character of the lover of his wife, and he was silent simply because he had not yet made up his mind what he would say.

If his face was outwardly calm and rigid as marble, while the flames of hell were raging in his heart, it was because his limbs for the moment refused to obey his will; but, in spite of this, Norbert was, for the time, literally insane.
Croisenois folded his arms, and continued,-- "I had only just come here at the moment of your arrival.

Why were you not here to listen to all that passed between us?
Would to heaven that you had been! Then you would have understood all the grandeur and nobility of your wife's soul.