Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and of the Chevalier des Grieux.pdf/47

Rh ments are vastly to your credit, on my word! 'Twill be a great pity, my poor Chevalier, to force you to join the Order of Malta, since you are so well fitted to make a husband of patient and accommodating disposition." He indulged in a long succession of similar sneers at what he called my folly and credulity.

At last, seeing that I remained silent, he went on to say that, according to the closest calculation he could make of the time since my departure from Amiens, Manon had loved me for about twelve days; "for," added he, "you left Amiens, as I reckon, on the 28th of last month; we are now at the 29th of the present month; it is eleven days since Monsieur de B wrote to me. I will suppose that eight days were necessary for him to establish a close intimacy with your mistress. Thus, subtracting eleven and eight from the thirty-one days which there are between the 28th of one month and the 29th of the next, there remain twelve, or a fraction more or less!"

At this there were renewed peals of laughter. I listened with a pang of such acute agony at my heart that I began to fear it would overmaster me before this sad comedy were at an end.

"You must know, then," resumed my father, "as you do not seem to be aware of it, that Monsieur de B has won the heart of your inamorata, for he is simply trifling