ad formed of us. He
gave orders to have a habitation prepared for us in the town, and
detained us to supper. I was really surprised to find so much
politeness in a governor of transported convicts. In the presence of
others he abstained from enquiring about our past adventures. The
conversation was general; and in spite of our degradation, Manon and I
exerted ourselves to make it lively and agreeable.

"At night we were conducted to the lodging prepared for us. We found a
wretched hovel composed of planks and mud, containing three rooms on
the ground, and a loft overhead. He had sent there six chairs, and
some few necessaries of life.

"Manon appeared frightened by the first view of this melancholy
dwelling. It was on my account much more than upon her own, that she
distressed herself. When we were left to ourselves, she sat down and
wept bitterly. I attempted at first to console her; but when she
enabled me to understand that it was for my sake she deplored our
privations, and that in our common afflictions she only considered me
as the sufferer, I put on an air of resolution, and even of content,
sufficient to encourage her.

"'What is there in my lot to lament?' said I; 'I possess all that I
have ever desired. You love me, Manon, do you not? What happiness
beyond this have I ever longed for? Let us leave to Providence the
direction of our destiny; it by no means appears to me so desperate.
The governor is civil and obliging; he has already given us marks of
his consideration; he will not allow us to want for necessaries. As to
our rude hut and the squalidness of our furniture, you might have
noticed that there are few persons in the colony better lodged or more
comfortably furnished than we are: and then you are an admirable
chemist,' added I, embracing her; 'you transform everything into gold.'

"'In that case,' she answered, 'you shall be the richest man in the
universe; for, as there never was love surpassing yours, so it is
impossible for man to be loved more tenderly than you are by me. I
well know,' she continued, 'that I have never merited the almost
incredible fidelity and attachment which you have shown for me. I have
often caused you annoyances, which nothing but excessive fondness could
have induced you to pardon. I have been thoughtless and volatile; and
even while loving you as I have always done to distraction, I was never
free from a consciousness of ingratitude. But you cannot bel