He drank the milk and in ten seconds fell stark and dead." "Horrible!" exclaimed Diana, covering her face with her hand, and recoiling from the tempter.
A sinister smile quivered upon the thin lips of the Counsellor.
"Why do you say horrible ?" asked he; "the dog had shown symptoms of _rabies_, and had he bitten me, I might have expired in frightful torture.

Was it not fair self-defence?
Sometimes, however, a man is more dangerous than a dog.

A man blights the whole of my life; I strike him down openly, and the law convicts me and puts me to death; but I do not contemplate doing so, for I would suppress such a man secretly." Diana placed her hands on the man's mouth and stopped a further exposition of his ideas.
"Listen to me," said she.

But at this moment a heavy step was heard outside.

"It is Norbert," gasped she.
"Impossible! It is more likely his father." "It is Norbert," cried Mademoiselle de Laurebourg, and snatching the little bottle from the Counsellor's hands, she thrust it into her bosom.
The door flew open, and Norbert appeared on the threshold.