Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and of the Chevalier des Grieux.pdf/212

216 her face in my hands. In another instant I felt them moistened by her tears. Heaven only knows what were my emotions at that moment.

"Ah, Manon, Manon!" I sighed, "why give me tears now, at the eleventh hour, after you have robbed me of all that made life dear to me? You are feigning a grief you cannot feel. The greatest of your afflictions, I doubt not, is my presence, which has always been an irksome hindrance to your pleasures. Open your eyes; look, and see who I am; such tender tears as these are not shed, I am sure, for an unhappy wretch whom you have betrayed and cruelly forsaken!"

She covered my hands with kisses, but did not change her attitude.

"Inconstant Manon!" continued I, "faithless and ungrateful girl! What of your promises and of your vows? What of the love you swore to me this very day, thrice fickle and cruel one? Just Heaven! Is a perfidious woman to call you thus solemnly to witness, and then to mock at you like this? Is perjury then, to be rewarded, while faith and constancy are left in despair?"

My reflections were so bitter as I uttered these words, that in spite of myself they drew tears from my eyes.