Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and of the Chevalier des Grieux.pdf/185



my life I have observed that Providence has invariably selected those periods when my fortunes have apparently been established on the firmest of foundations, to inflict its severest chastisements upon me. With M. de T's friendship and Manon's affection, my cup of happiness seemed so full, that no one could have persuaded me that there was any fresh misfortune in store for me. Yet there was one impending at that moment so disastrous in its consequences that it reduced me to the condition in which you saw me at Passy, and eventually to such deplorable extremities that you will find it difficult as you hear them to believe in the truth of my story.

One evening M. de T was supping with us, when we heard a coach rattle up to the door of the inn, and stop. Our curiosity was excited as to who could be arriving at that late hour. Upon inquiry we found that it was young Monsieur de G M; no other, in fact, than the son of our cruellest enemy, the old voluptuary who had incarcerated me at Saint Lazare, and sent Manon to the Hôpital. I flushed with anger as I heard his name.

"A just Heaven has brought him here," I said to M. de