Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and of the Chevalier des Grieux.pdf/282

286 dence and even cheerfulness as, I hoped, might serve to encourage her.

"Why should I complain?" I said to her: "I possess all that I ever desired. You love me, dearest, do you not? What greater happiness have I ever asked for than that? Let us trust the guidance of our fortunes to Providence. They do not appear to me to be in such a very desperate plight, after all. The Governor seems a kind and obliging man. He has already shown a disposition to befriend us, and he will not, I am sure, allow us to suffer from absolute want. As for this poor cabin and its rude furniture, comfortless as they are, you may have noticed that there seem to be but few persons here who are better housed or furnished than ourselves; and besides," I added, with a kiss, "you are the most wonderful of alchemists: you transform all things into gold!"

"Then you shall be the richest man in all the world," she replied; "for, as there never yet was love like yours, so it is impossible for man to be loved more tenderly than you are loved by me. I am not blind to my own faults," she continued. "I am well aware that I have never been