Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and of the Chevalier des Grieux.pdf/121

Rh ishment. I listened to him with an air of submission which seemed greatly to gratify him. Nor did I exhibit any signs of resentment even when he proceeded to rally me on my brotherly relationship to Lescaut and Manon, and on the little chapels of which he said I had doubtless made a great many at St. Lazare, since I took so much pleasure in that pious amusement. But, unhappily for him and for myself, he let slip the remark that Manon, too, had probably built some very pretty ones at the Hôpital.

Despite the shudder which the name of that place sent through my frame, I retained sufficient self-control to ask him quietly to explain his meaning.

Tis as I say," he replied. "For two months past she has been learning lessons in virtue at the Hôpital Général, and I trust that she has profited by them as much as you have at St. Lazare."

The prospect of an eternity of imprisonment, or of death itself, could not have forced me to restrain my rage at this hideous intelligence. I threw myself upon him with such fury that half my strength was consumed by its very vio-