siest scheme, and the most suitable to my
present situation. He admitted that play certainly was a resource, but
that it was necessary to consider the point well. 'Mere play,' said he,
'with its ordinary chances, is the certain road to ruin; and as for
attempting, alone and without an ally, to employ the little means an
adroit man has for correcting the vagaries of luck, it would be too
dangerous an experiment.' There was, he stated, a third course, which
was to enter into what he called a partnership; but he feared his
confederates would consider my youth an objection to my admittance.
He, however, promised to use his influence with them; and, what was
more than I expected at his hands, he said that he would supply me with
a little money whenever I had pressing occasion for any. The only
favour I then asked of him was to say nothing to Manon of the loss I
had experienced, nor of the subject of our conversation.

"I certainly derived little comfort from my visit to Lescaut; I felt
even sorry for having confided my secret to him: not a single thing had
he done for me that I might not just as well have done for myself,
without troubling him; and I could not help dreading that he would
violate his promise to keep the secret from Manon. I had also reason
to apprehend, from his late avowals, that he might form the design of
making use of her for his own vile purposes, or at least of advising
her to quit me for some happier and more wealthy lover. This idea
brought in its train a thousand reflections, which had no other effect
than to torment me, and throw me again into the state of despair in
which I had passed the morning. It occurred to me, more than once, to
write to my father; and to pretend a new reformation, in order to
obtain some pecuniary assistance from him; but I could not forget that,
notwithstanding all his natural love and affection for me, he had shut
me up for six months in a confined room for my first transgression; and
I was certain that, after the scandalous sensation caused by my flight
from St. Sulpice, he would be sure to treat me with infinitely more
rigour now.

"At length, out of this chaos of fancies came an idea that all at once
restored ease to my mind, and which I was surprised at not having hit
upon sooner; this was, to go again to my friend Tiberge, in whom I
might be always sure of finding the same unfailing zeal and friendship.
There is nothing more glorious--nothing that does more honou