Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and of the Chevalier des Grieux.pdf/76

80 ance had created so much confusion, that she could not answer for the safety of anything. I trembled for our money, which had been left there, locked up in a small chest; and hastened back to Chaillot at once. My promptitude was in vain; the chest had already disappeared!

In that bitter moment I realized that one need be no miser in order to love money. So keen was my anguish at our loss, that I thought it would cost me my reason. I saw at one glance all the new miseries to which I was about to be exposed. Poverty was the least of them. I understood Manon's nature; I had already learned, only too well, that however faithful and devoted she might be while fortune smiled on me, she could not be trusted in adversity. She loved pleasure and luxury too much to sacrifice them for my sake. "I shall lose her!" I cried to myself. "Unhappy wretch that I am, must I again be robbed of all that I hold dear?"

This thought threw me into such an agony of apprehension that I hesitated for some moments as to whether it would not be best to seek a refuge from all my sorrows in death. I retained enough presence of mind, however, to desire, before I took that fatal step, to satisfy myself