Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and of the Chevalier des Grieux.pdf/259

Rh suffered her to be torn from your arms? Nay! you would have defended her to the very death! And do you suppose that others have not hearts of their own, as you have? Surely that breast cannot be utterly inhuman which has once known the sweetness of love and the bitterness of grief!"

"Do not dare to utter your mother's name again!" he exclaimed angrily. "You but add to my indignation by alluding to her memory! Sorrow at your debaucheries would have killed her, had she been alive to witness them. We have talked enough. I am in no humor to listen to more of your ravings—and nothing you can say will make me alter the resolution I have formed. I am now going back to my lodgings, and I order you to come with me."

The sharp and peremptory tone in which he uttered this command showed only too clearly that his heart was inflexible. I drew back a few paces, fearing that it might occur to him to lay hands upon me himself, and force me to accompany him.

"Do not increase my despair," I said to him, by compelling me to disobey you. It is impossible for me to go with you, just as it is impossible for me to live any longer after the cruel treatment which I have experienced at