Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and of the Chevalier des Grieux.pdf/192

196 how to rid yourself of an unacceptable or importunate lover."

After musing for a few moments, she exclaimed:

"I have it. I have thought of an admirable plan, and I am quite proud of my ingenuity. G M, you see, is the son of our bitterest enemy. We must be revenged on the father, not, indeed, through the son himself, but through the son's purse. What I mean to do is to listen to his proposals, accept his presents, and then leave him in the lurch."

"A pretty enough project, doubtless," I said, "but you seem to forget, my poor girl, that this is the very same road which led us straight to the Hôpital."

In vain did I point out to her the danger of doing as she proposed. She insisted that it would be only necessary for us to play our cards well; and found a ready answer to every objection that I urged.

Show me the lover who does not blindly humor every caprice in the woman he adores, and I will admit that I was to blame in yielding so readily. However that may be, it was agreed between us that G M should be made our dupe; whereas, by a strange turn of fate, I became his instead.

His coach drew up at the door at about eleven o'clock.