Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and of the Chevalier des Grieux.pdf/204

208 She then told me that M. de G M was an old acquaintance of hers. At five o'clock that afternoon he had sent for her; and, on following the lackey who had brought his message, she had been taken to a fine mansion where she had found him playing at piquet with a very beautiful lady. She had received instructions from them both to deliver the letter which she had placed in my hands, having first been told by them that she would find me waiting in a coach at the end of the Rue Saint-André.

I inquired whether this was all they had said to her. She replied, with a blush, that they had led her to hope that I would take her to live with me as my mistress.

"Then," said I, "they deceived you, my poor girl, they deceived you cruelly. You are a woman, and being a woman, you cannot do without a lover. But you want a lover who is rich and happy, and you will not find him here. Go back to G M; yes, be advised by me, and go back to him. He can boast of all that a man need have in order to win the favor of the fair. He can lavish upon them gifts of houses, and carriages, and whole retinues of servants. As for me, who have only love and constancy to offer, women scorn my poverty and make sport of my simplicity!"