Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and of the Chevalier des Grieux.pdf/162

166 any rate, hold out some hope for the future; and, though last, not least in importance, I had to make careful inquiries and take whatever measures might be necessary for insuring Manon's safety and my own.

After exhausting my ingenuity in thinking out plans and contrivances to meet these three principal requirements, I finally came to the conclusion that it would be as well to leave the latter two out of consideration for the time being. We were lodged comfortably enough in our room at Chaillot; while, as for future necessities, I decided that it would be soon enough to think of them when I had provided for those of the moment.

The immediate question, then, was how to replenish my purse. M. de T had generously offered me his, but the idea of reminding him of the subject myself was extremely repugnant to me. Could there be anything more humiliating than to go and lay bare one's destitution to a stranger, and beg for charity from him? To be capable of such an act one must have a soul so sordid as to prevent one's realizing the degradation it would involve, or possess a Christian humility which, by the very excess of its nobility, lifts one above any such sense of shame. As I, for my part, was neither devoid of all self-respect, nor, on the other hand, a good Christian, I would have sacrificed half the blood in my veins to escape such humiliation.

"There is Tiberge, too," I soliloquized; "he, good soul, would refuse me nothing that it was in his power to grant. My distress would touch him to the heart, I know; but he would weary me to death with his moralizing. I should have to submit to his reproaches, his exhortations, and his warnings; and in that way pay so dear a price for his assistance, that I would give the other half of my blood rather than expose myself to a scene so unpleasant in it-