Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and of the Chevalier des Grieux.pdf/201

Rh my heart, and was conscious only of the determination to make one final and desperate effort to banish my perjured and ungrateful mistress forever from my thoughts.

I glanced at the girl before me. She was extremely pretty; and I could have wished that she were beautiful enough to make me forswear honor and constancy in my turn. But hers were not those bright and melting eyes, that divinely moulded form, that complexion of love's own coloring—in a word, that inexhaustible wealth of charms which Nature had lavished upon the faithless Manon.

"No! It cannot be!" I exclaimed, as I withdrew my gaze from her face. "The heartless being from whom you come was only too well aware that she was sending you on a vain errand. Go back to her, and tell her in my name to enjoy the fruits of her guilt—to enjoy them, if she can, without remorse. For my part, I renounce her now and forever—her and all her sex, none of whom can equal her in loveliness, but all of whom, I doubt not, are as base and as disloyal as herself!"

So saying, I turned away, and was about to leave the house and relinquish forever all claim to Manon's affections. The mortal jealousy which was consuming my heart had taken the guise of a dark and mournful apathy, which led me to imagine that I was nearly cured of my