Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and of the Chevalier des Grieux.pdf/43

Rh I reflected that he did not know where I had been living, and that consequently they could not have obtained the information from him.

As for accusing Manon, my heart refused to be guilty of such a suspicion. The unaccountable sadness under which I had seen her laboring, her tears, the tender kiss which she had given me as she withdrew, all these, indeed, were enigmas which I found it hard to unriddle; but my impulse was to interpret them as arising from a presentiment of our common misfortune; and, in the midst of my despair at the untoward event which had torn me from her side, I had the credulity to imagine that she was even more to be pitied than myself.

The result of my meditations was the conviction that I had been seen in the streets of Paris by some acquaintance who had informed my father of the fact. This thought consoled me. I reckoned upon escaping with no worse consequences than a severe upbraiding, or, possibly, some disagreeable punishment for my rebellion against the paternal authority. I resolved to endure them patiently, and to promise whatever might be required of me, in order to facilitate my speedy return to Paris, so that I could restore life and happiness to my beloved Manon.