He knew that there was a large collection of books in one of the upstairs rooms of the Chateau.

He managed to force the lock of the door, and he found some thousands of volumes, of which at least two hundred were novels, which had been the solace of his mother's unhappy life.

With all the eagerness of a man who is at the point of starvation and finds an unexpected store of provisions, Norbert seized upon them.

At first he had great difficulty in dividing fact from fiction.
He arrived at two conclusions from perusing this heterogeneous mass of literature--one was, that he was most unhappy; and the other was, that he hated his father with a cold and determined loathing.

Had he dared, he would have shown this feeling openly, but the Duke de Champdoce inspired him with an unconquerable feeling of terror.