Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and of the Chevalier des Grieux.pdf/100

104 and shame. Happy had I been if there had not mingled with them a love that was stronger than them all!

"She loves me!" I cried; "I must fain believe it; for how could she do otherwise, unless she were a veritable fiend? What claims did man ever have upon a heart that I have not upon hers? What more is there that I can do for her, after all that I have sacrificed for her sake? Yet she abandons me, and thinks, ungrateful girl, to shield herself from my reproaches by declaring that she has not ceased to love me! She pleads her dread of hunger! God of Love, what grossness of sentiment! How poor a return for the delicacy of my own! Hunger! Have I feared it? I, who so willingly expose myself to its terrors for love of her, by renouncing my fortune and the comforts of my home! I, who have foregone all but the very necessaries of life, that I might indulge her slightest whims and caprices! She adores me, so she says. Did you adore me, heartless girl, I know from whom you would have sought advice! You would not have left me without at least bidding me farewell. It is I who can best say what cruel anguish there is in being separated from one whom we adore. Surely, no one could be sane, and yet willingly incur it!"

My lamentations were interrupted by a visitor whom