Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and of the Chevalier des Grieux.pdf/176

180 meeting her. This had led him to strike up an acquaintance with the stranger's servants, in order to find out from them who their master was. They had given him to understand that he was an Italian Prince, and that they suspected him themselves of being engaged in some gallant adventure. This, added the valet, nervously, was all he had been able to learn, as the Prince had sauntered out from under the trees at that moment, and accosting him pleasantly, had asked him his name, and then, as if guessing him to be in our service, had congratulated him on being employed by so charming a lady.

I waited impatiently to hear the rest of his story; but he came to a stop, with some timid excuses, which I attributed merely to my imprudent exhibition of temper. I urged him in vain to continue and to conceal nothing from me. He protested that he knew no more, saying that, as all he had just told me had occurred only the day before, he had not yet had another opportunity of seeing the Prince's servants.

In order to reassure him, I not only praised him for what he had done, but rewarded him liberally; and then, without allowing him to suppose that I entertained the slightest suspicion of Manon, I instructed him, in a calmer tone, to keep a watch on all the foreigner's proceedings.

In reality, the fellow's timidity left me a prey to the cruellest uncertainty, for I was afraid that it might have led him to suppress part of the truth. However, after some reflection, I recovered from my alarm sufficiently to regret that I had yielded to such weakness. I could not justly blame Manon for the fact that some one had chosen to fall in love with her. According to all appearance she was herself ignorant of the conquest she had made; and what was my life to become if I were so readily to open my heart to the inroads of jealousy?