knew how to weigh the advantages of social rank and position. She
affected a sudden sympathy with the poor, and visited them constantly,
and might be frequently met in the lanes carrying soup and other
comforts to them. Her father declared, with a laugh, that she ought
to have been a Sister of Charity, and did not notice the fact that all
Diana's pensioners resided in the vicinity of Champdoce. But it was
in vain that she wandered about, continually changing the hour of her
visits. The "Savage of Champdoce" was not to be seen, nor was he even
a regular attendant at Mass. At last a mere trifle changed the whole
current of the young man's existence; for, a week after the conversation
in which the Duke had laid bare his scheme to his son, he again referred
to it, after their dinner, which they had partaken of at the same table
with forty laborers, who had been hired to get in the harvest.

"You need not, my son," began the old gentleman, "go back with the
laborers to-day."

"But, sir--"

"Allow me to continue, if you please. My confidential conversation with
you the other night was merely a preliminary to my telling you that
for the future I did not expect you to toil as hard as you had hitherto
done, for I wish you to perform a duty less laborious, but more
responsible; you will for the future act as farm-bailiff."

Norbert looked up suddenly into his father's face.

"For I wish you to become accustomed to independent action, so that at
my death your sudden liberty may not intoxicate you."