Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and of the Chevalier des Grieux.pdf/179

Rh now and again; and added that on the morrow, to begin with, she wished to have me with her from morning to night.

"And I shall be, you may depend upon it," answered I, morosely enough.

She did not appear to notice my ill-humor; and, in the exuberance of her delight, which struck me as unusually lively, even for her, she gave me a series of amusing descriptions of how she had passed the day.

"Strange girl!" I muttered to myself; "what am I to expect from this prelude?"

The circumstances of our first separation recurred to my mind; but I thought that, behind all her gayety and caresses, there was to be detected a certain tone of sincerity which accorded well with the indications of her manner.

I readily accounted for my dejection, which I could not banish all through our supper, by attributing it to heavy losses which, I told her, I had been unlucky enough to suffer at play.

I regarded it as a circumstance very much in my favor that the idea of my remaining at Chaillot the following day had been suggested by Manon herself. I thus gained time for deliberation.

The fact that I should be on the spot relieved me of all fears for the morrow; and I had already made up my mind that, if I saw nothing to necessitate my making my discoveries known, I would the next day remove my whole establishment to town, and to a quarter where I should be safe from the intrusion of meddlesome princes. Thanks to this arrangement, I passed a comparatively peaceful night; but it did not save me from the pain I could not but feel at having reason to fear a fresh instance of inconstancy on the part of my mistress.