r infidelity: she, on the contrary, appeared transported with the
pleasure of seeing me. She accused me of coldness. I could not help
muttering the words perfidious and unfaithful, though they were
profusely mixed with sighs.

"At first she laughed at me for my simplicity; but when she found that
I continued to look at her with an unchanging expression of melancholy,
and that I could not bring myself to enter with alacrity into a scene
so repugnant to all my feelings, she went alone into her boudoir. I
very soon followed her, and then I found her in a flood of tears. I
asked the cause of her sorrow. 'You can easily understand it,' said
she; 'how can you wish me to live, if my presence can no longer have
any other effect than to give you an air of sadness and chagrin? Not
one kiss have you given me during the long hour you have been in the
house, while you have received my caresses with the dignified
indifference of a Grand Turk, receiving the forced homage of the
Sultanas of his harem.'

"'Hearken to me, Manon,' said I, embracing her; 'I cannot conceal from
you that my heart is bitterly afflicted. I do not now allude to the
uneasiness your sudden flight caused me, nor to the unkindness of
quitting me without a word of consolation, after having passed the
night away from me. The pleasure of seeing you again would more than
compensate for all; but do you imagine that I can reflect without sighs
and tears upon the degrading and unhappy life which you now wish me to
lead in this house? Say nothing of my birth, or of my feelings of
honour; love like mine derives no aid from arguments of that feeble
nature; but do you imagine that I can without emotion see my love so
badly recompensed, or rather so cruelly treated, by an ungrateful and
unfeeling mistress?'

"She interrupted me. 'Stop, chevalier,' said she, 'it is useless to
torture me with reproaches, which, coming from you, always pierce my
heart. I see what annoys you. I had hoped that you would have agreed
to the project which I had devised for mending our shattered fortunes,
and it was from a feeling of delicacy to you that I began the execution
of it without your assistance; but I give it up since it does not meet
your approbation.' She added that she would now merely request a
little patient forbearance during the remainder of the day; that she
had already received five hundred crowns from the old gentleman, and
that he had promised to bring her that eveni