Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and of the Chevalier des Grieux.pdf/84

88 fulness which banished the traces of grief that Manon must otherwise have detected in my face. I alluded to our mishap at Chaillot as a trifle which need cause her no alarm; and since, of all places in the world, she loved best to be in Paris, she did not disguise her delight when I told her that it would be advisable for us to remain there until some slight damage caused by the fire at Chaillot had been repaired.

An hour afterwards I received an answer from Tiberge, promising to meet me at the place I had named. Full of impatience, I hastened to the spot. I was conscious, nevertheless, of a certain sense of shame in thus going to face a friend whose very presence could not but be a rebuke to my irregularities. Still, my belief in the largeness of his heart, and my devotion to Manon's interests, served to embolden me.

I had asked him to meet me in the garden of the Palais Royal, and found him awaiting me there. No sooner did he see me than he ran forward to embrace me. For a long time he held me clasped in his arms, and I felt my face moistened by his tears. I told him that it was with feelings of shame and embarrassment that I had sought his presence, and that my heart was filled with a keen