nded
Manon to the attention of the porter, telling him that I was a person
of some distinction, and promising him a considerable recompense. I
embraced my dearest mistress before we parted; I implored her not to
distress herself too much, and to fear nothing while I lived. I had
money with me: I gave her some; and I paid the porter, out of what
remained, the amount of a month's expenses for both of us in, advance.
This had an excellent effect, for I found myself placed in an apartment
comfortably furnished, and they assured me that Manon was in one
equally good.

"I immediately set about devising the means of procuring my liberty.
There certainly had been nothing actually criminal in my conduct; and
supposing even that our felonious intention was established by the
evidence of Marcel, I knew that criminal intentions alone were not
punishable. I resolved to write immediately to my father, and beg of
him to come himself to Paris. I felt much less humiliation, as I have
already said, in being in Le Chatelet than in St. Lazare. Besides,
although I preserved, all proper respect for the paternal authority,
age and experience had considerably lessened my timidity. I wrote, and
they made no difficulty in the prison about forwarding my letter; but
it was a trouble I should have spared myself, had I known that my
father was about to arrive on the following day in Paris. He had
received the letter I had written to him a week before; it gave him
extreme delight; but, notwithstanding the flattering hopes I had held
out of my conversion, he could not implicitly rely on my statements.
He determined therefore to satisfy himself of my reformation by the
evidence of his own senses, and to regulate his conduct towards me
according to his conviction of my sincerity. He arrived the day after
my imprisonment.

"His first visit was to Tiberge, to whose care I begged that he would
address his answer. He could not learn from him either my present
abode or condition: Tiberge merely told him of my principal adventures
since I had escaped from St. Lazare. Tiberge spoke warmly of the
disposition to virtue which I had evinced at our last interview. He
added, that he considered me as having quite got rid of Manon; but that
he was nevertheless surprised at my not having given him any
intelligence about myself for a week. My father was not to be duped.
He fully comprehended that there was something in the silence of which
Tiberge complaine