Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and of the Chevalier des Grieux.pdf/120

124 "May I flatter myself," I meekly inquired, "that the two months' imprisonment which I have already undergone will appear to him a sufficient expiation of my offences?"

He promised to speak to Monsieur de G M on the subject, if I so desired. I begged him earnestly to do me this service. Two days afterwards he informed me that G M had been so much impressed by the good accounts he had heard of me that he not only seemed inclined to set me free, but had even evinced a strong desire to know me better, and proposed paying me a visit in my prison. Although I could not anticipate his presence with any pleasure, I regarded it as a step on the road to my liberty.

He carried out his intention and came to St. Lazare. He seemed to me more dignified in manner, and less of a silly old dotard than when I had seen him in Manon's house. After making some sensible observations on the subject of my misconduct, he went on to say, in justification, apparently, of his own immorality, that while it is permissible for weak mortals to indulge in certain pleasures which nature imperiously demands, it is only right that knavery and dishonest trickery should meet with severe pun-