Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and the Chevalier Des Grieux.djvu/52

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 3'ou are so well fitted to nrake a husband of patient and accommodating disposition/' He indulged in a long succession of similar sneers at what he called my folly and ci'edulity. At last, seeing that 1 remauied silent, he went on to say that, according to the closest ciilculation he could make of the time since my departui^e from Amiens, Manon had loved me for about twelve days : ^* for>" added he, 'vou left Amiens, as I reckon, on the *2Sth of last month : we are now at the 29th of the present month : it is eleven days since MonsitMir de B wrote to me. I will suppose that eight days were necessary for him to (stiil)lish a close intimacy with your mistress. Thus, suhti-acting eleven and eight from the thirty-one days which theiv ai'e between the 28th of one month and the 2nth of the next, theixj re- main twelve, or a fraction more or l(ss I " At this thei'e were renewed jK^als of laughter. I listened with a pang of such acutt» agony at my heart that I began to feiir 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 heaili of your inamorata, for he is simply tiMfling