"But will a woman like Diana ever forgive an offence like mine?
and when she seems most friendly the danger is the more near." Unfortunately he thrust aside this idea, and refused to listen to the voice of reason.

That evening he went down to his club with the intention of asking a few questions regarding the Mussidans.

He heard enough to satisfy himself, and the next day he met Madame de Mussidan in the Champs Elysees, and for many days afterwards in rapid succession.
Each day they exchanged a few words, and at last Diana, with much simulated hesitation, promised to alight from her carriage when next they met in the Bois, and talk to Norbert unhampered by the presence of the domestics.
Madame de Mussidan had made the appointment for three o'clock, but before two Norbert was on the spot, in a fever of expectation and doubt.
"Is it I," asked he of himself, "waiting once more for Diana, as I have so often waited for her at Bevron ?" Ah, how many changes had taken place since then! He was now no longer waiting for Diana de Laurebourg, but for the Countess de Mussidan, another man's wife, while he also was a married man.

It was no longer the whim of a monomaniac that kept them apart, but the dictates of law, honor, and the world.
"Why," said he, in a mad burst of passion, "why should we not set at defiance all the cold social rules framed by an artificial state of society; why should not the woman leave her husband and the man his wife ?" Norbert had consulted his watch times without number before the appointed hour came.

"Ah," sighed he, "suppose that she should not come after all." As he said these words a cab stopped, and the Countess de Mussidan alighted from it.