g of wanton
vice,' said I to myself, 'in her transgressions; she is volatile and
imprudent, but she is sincere and affectionate.' My love alone
rendered me blind to all her faults. I was enchanted at the prospect
of rescuing her that very night from my rival. I said to her: 'With
whom do you mean to pass the night?' She was evidently disconcerted by
the question, and answered me in an embarrassed manner with BUTS and
IFS.

"I felt for her, and interrupted her by saying that I at once expected
her to accompany me.

"'Nothing can give me more pleasure,' said she; 'but you don't approve
then of my project?'

"'Is it not enough,' replied I, 'that I approve of all that you have,
up to this moment, done?'

"'What,' said she, 'are we not even to take the ten thousand francs
with us? Why, he gave me the money; it is mine.'

"I advised her to leave everything, and let us think only of escaping
for although I had been hardly half an hour with her, I began to dread
the return of G---- M----. However, she so earnestly urged me to
consent to our going out with something in our pockets, that I thought
myself bound to make her, on my part, some concession, in return for
all she yielded to me.

"While we were getting ready for our departure, I heard someone knock
at the street door. I felt convinced that it must be G---- M----; and
in the heat of the moment, I told Manon, that as sure as he appeared I
would take his life. In truth, I felt that I was not sufficiently
recovered from my late excitement to be able to restrain my fury if I
met him. Marcel put an end to my uneasiness, by handing me a letter
which he had received for me at the door; it was from M. de T----.

"He told me that, as G---- M---- had gone to his father's house for the
money which he wanted, he had taken advantage of his absence to
communicate to me an amusing idea that had just come into his head;
that it appeared to him, I could not possibly take a more agreeable
revenge upon my rival, than by eating his supper, and spending the
night in the very bed which he had hoped to share with my mistress; all
this seemed to him easy enough, if I could only find two or three men
upon whom I could depend, of courage sufficient to stop him in the
street, and detain him in custody until next morning; that he would
undertake to keep him occupied for another hour at least, under some
pretext, which he could devise before G---- M----'s return.

"I showed the n