Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and the Chevalier Des Grieux.djvu/57

56 " who shall be like your Manon in all respects, save her inconstancy." "Ah, sir ! '* said I, " as you love me, give me her, and her alone ! Rest assured, dear father, that it was not she who betrayed me ; she is incapable of such base and cruel treachery. It is that false-hearted B who is deceiving us — deceiving us all three. If you could but realize the tenderness and sincerity of her nature — if you could but know her — ^you would youi'self love her ! " yourself, after all that I have told you of her ? It was she — she herself who gave you up into your brother's hands. It were well for you to forget her very name, and, if you are wise, to profit by the indulgence I am showing you." I recognized only too clearly that he was right ; and it was unreasoning impulse alone that made me thus side with my faithless mistress. too true that I am the victim of the most shameful treach- ery ! Yes," I continued, weeping from very mortification, " yes, I am indeed nothing but a child — I see it plainly-. It was an easy matter for them to cheat credulity like mine. But I know how to be revenged ! " My father inquired what I intended to do. "I will go to Paris," said I, "and set fire to B s house, that he and my faithless Manon may perish to- gether in the flames ! " This outburst made my father laugh, and only re- sulted in my being watched with increased vigilance in my place of confinement. I there spent six whole months, during the first of which there was little change in my condition. My feelings may be smnmed up as a perpetual alternation between love and hatred, between hope and despair, ac-
 * ' Child ! " retorted my father, *^ how can you thus blind
 * 'Alas ! " I rejoined, after a moment's silence, '* it is but