Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and of the Chevalier des Grieux.pdf/272

276 that other men hold dear; but I was master of Manon's heart, the one possession that I prized. "What cared I whether my remaining days were to be passed in Europe or America? Little did the place of my abode matter to me, as long as it insured me the happiness of living with my beloved mistress. Is not the whole wide world home and country for two faithful lovers? Do they not find in one another parents, kindred, friends—all riches and all joys?

If there were anything that caused me anxiety, it was the dread of seeing Manon exposed to privations and want. I imagined myself already with her in some wild and uncultivated region, inhabited only by savages. "There can be none, even there," thought I, "as cruel as my father and G M; of that I am convinced. They will at least allow us to live in peace. If the accounts we read of them are to be believed, they obey the laws of Nature. The passion of avarice, to which G M is a slave, and the fantastic notions of honor which have made my own father my enemy, are alike unknown to them. They will not molest two lovers whose lives, as they will see, are as simple as their own."

I had thus no fears upon that point; but I indulged in no romantic fancies with respect to the common necessaries of life. I had only too often been brought face to face with the fact that there are some privations which are unendurable, especially by a delicate girl who has been accustomed to a life of ease and abundance. I was in despair to think that I had been forced to part with my money so uselessly, and that even what little I had left would soon be extorted from me by the rascally greed of the Archers; for I thought that, with a small sum in my possession, I might have hoped, not only to ward off destitution for some time in America, where money was