ly does Tiberge call this a mere phantom of
happiness.' I could, without feeling interest or emotion, see the
whole world besides perish around me. Why? Because I have in it no
object of affection beyond her.

"This sentiment was true; however, while I so lightly esteemed the good
things of the world, I felt that there was no doing without some little
portion of them, were it only to inspire a more thorough contempt for
the remainder. Love is more powerful than wealth--more attractive than
grandeur or fame; but, alas! it cannot exist without certain artificial
aids; and there is nothing more humiliating to the feelings, of a
sensitive lover, than to find himself, by want of means, reduced to the
level of the most vulgar minds.

"It was eleven o'clock when we arrived at Chaillot. They received us
at the inn as old acquaintances, and expressed no sort of surprise at
seeing Manon in male attire, for it was the custom in Paris and the
environs to adopt all disguises. I took care to have her served with
as much attention as if I had been in prosperous circumstances. She
was ignorant of my poverty, and I carefully kept her so, being resolved
to return alone the following day to Paris, to seek some cure for this
vexatious kind of malady.

"At supper she appeared pale and thin; I had not observed this at the
Hospital, as the room in which I saw her was badly lighted. I asked
her if the excessive paleness were not caused by the shock of
witnessing her brother's death? She assured me that, horrified as she
naturally was at the event, her paleness was purely the effect of a
three months' absence from me. 'You do love me then devotedly?' I
exclaimed.

"'A thousand times more than I can tell!' was her reply.

"'You will never leave me again?' I added.

"'No! never, never!' answered she.

"This assurance was confirmed by so many caresses and vows, that it
appeared impossible she could, to the end of time, forget them. I have
never doubted that she was at that moment sincere. What motive could
she have had for dissembling to such a degree? But she became
afterwards still more volatile than ever, or rather she was no longer
anything, and entirely forgot herself, when, in poverty and want, she
saw other women living in abundance. I was now on the point of
receiving a new proof of her inconstancy, which threw all that had
passed into the shade, and which led to the strangest adventure that
ever happened to a man of m