y birth and prospects.

"As I knew her disposition, I hastened the next day to Paris. The death
of her brother, and the necessity of getting linen and clothes for her,
were such good reasons, that I had no occasion for any further pretext.
I left the inn, with the intention, as I told Manon and the landlord,
of going in a hired carriage, but this was a mere flourish; necessity
obliged me to travel on foot: I walked very fast as far as
Cours-la-Reine, where I intended to rest. A moment of solitude and
tranquillity was requisite to compose myself, and to consider what was
to be done in Paris.

"I sat down upon the grass. I plunged into a sea of thoughts and
considerations, which at length resolved themselves into three
principal heads. I had pressing want of an infinite number of absolute
necessaries; I had to seek some mode of at least raising a hope for the
future; and, though last, not least in importance, I had to gain
information, and adopt measures, to secure Manon's safety and my own.
After having exhausted myself in devising projects upon these three
chief points, I was obliged to put out of view for the moment the two
last. We were not ill sheltered from observation in the inn at
Chaillot; and as to future wants, I thought it would be time enough to
think about them when those of the moment were satisfied.

"The main object now was to replenish my purse. M. de T---- had once
offered me his, but I had an extreme repugnance to mention the subject
to him again. What a degradation to expose one's misery to a stranger,
and to ask for charity: it must be either a man of low mind who would
thus demean himself, and that from a baseness which must render him
insensible to the degradation, or a humble Christian, from a
consciousness of generosity in himself, which must put him above the
sense of shame. I would have sacrificed half my life to be spared the
humiliation.

"'Tiberge,' said I, 'kind Tiberge, will he refuse me what he has it in
his power to grant? No, he will assuredly sympathise in my misery; but
he will also torture me with his lectures! One must endure his
reproaches, his exhortations, his threats: I shall have to purchase his
assistance so dearly, that I would rather make any sacrifice than
encounter this distressing scene, which cannot fail to leave me full of
sorrow and remorse. Well,' thought I again, 'all hope must be
relinquished, since no other course presents itself: so far am I from
ad