Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and of the Chevalier des Grieux.pdf/244

248 demeanor of a well-bred son towards a father for whom he entertains the deepest respect, especially when he is conscious of that father's displeasure. Nor have I any wish to hold myself up as the most virtuous of those who bear our name. I know that I merit your rebukes; but I beseech you to moderate their severity, and not to treat me as though I were the vilest of men. I do not deserve such harsh epithets as those which you have applied to me. Love, as you know, has been the cause of all my errors. Alas! have you never felt the force of that fatal passion? Surely, it cannot be that your blood, from which my own is drawn, has never flowed with a like fire! Love, and love alone, must answer for having made me too tender, too impassioned, too constant, and, perhaps, too compliant, where the wishes of my all-fascinating mistress were concerned. Such are my crimes: is there one of them that does you dishonor? Pray, then, my dear father," I continued affectionately, "pray have some compassion on a son who has never failed in his love and respect for you; who has not bidden farewell, as you suppose, to honor or to duty; and who needs your pity far more than you imagine!"

The tears rose to my eyes as I concluded this appeal.

A father's heart is Nature's masterpiece. It is the realm, so to speak, over which she delights to rule, and its every impulse is under her own immediate ordering. Not only was Nature strong in my father, but he was a man of cultivated taste and intelligence; and the turn which I had given to my expressions of contrition appealed so forcibly to his feelings that he could not disguise the change which they had undergone.

"Come to my arms, my poor son!" he cried; "you have my deepest sympathy!"

I embraced him affectionately, and he pressed me so