Your father and mother are expecting you; it is really too terrible." Diana hastened to obey the summons.

Her father and mother were seated near each other, evidently in deep distress.

She went towards them, and the Marquis, drawing her to him, pressed her against his heart.
"Poor child! My dear daughter!" murmured he, "you are all that is left to us now." Their son had died, and the sad news had been brought to the Chateau while Diana was at Mass.

By her brother's death she had succeeded to a princely fortune, and would now be one of the richest heiresses for many a mile round.

Had this event happened but a week before, her marriage to Norbert would have met with no opposition from his father, and she would never have plunged into this abyss of crime.