Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and the Chevalier Des Grieux.djvu/59

58 ceiveil any proofs of his regard for me that could lead me to think of it as anything: more than an oixlinary college friendship, such as naturally grows up between young fel- lows of about the same age. He had changed so greatly, and become so matured during the five or six months since I had last seen him, that his whole bearing and tone of conversation inspired me with respect. He talked to me more like a grave and prudent adviser than a companion of my school-days — deploring the follies into which I had strayed, and congratulating me upon my i-eformation, which he supposed to be almost complete. Finally he exhorted me to profit by this youthful error of mine by letting it open my eyes to the vanitx' of pleasure. I gazed at him in amazement. Observing this, he said to me: absolute truth, of which I have become firmly convinced after the most earnest examination. I had as great a leaning as yourself towards the pleasures of the senses ; but Heaven vouchsafed me at the siime time a love of vir- tue. I employed my reason in a comparison of the fruits of the one with those of the other, and I w^as not long in discovering the contrast between them. Religion brought
 * ' My dear Chevalier, what I am now saying is simply the