I little expected to see—none other than Lescaut himself.
"Villain!" I cried, grasping my sword, "where is Manon? What have you done with her?"
This outburst alarmed him. He replied that if I received him in this fashion when he came to give me an account of the greatest service he could have rendered me, he would take his leave, never to set foot in my house again. I ran to the door of the room and closed it carefully.
"Do not flatter yourself," I said, confronting him, "that you will be able once more to make a dupe of me
and impose upon my credulity with your fables! Either draw and defend yourself or restore Manon to me!"
"Curse it, man," he rejoined, "do not be so hasty. That is the very subject that brings me here. I have come to tell you of a stroke of good fortune which you little expect, and for which you will admit, perhaps, that you are under some obligation to me."
I desired him to enlighten me at once. He told me that Manon, being unable to bear the fear of poverty, and above all the idea of having to submit suddenly to the reduction of our establishment, had begged him to procure her the acquaintance of Monsieur de G——— M———, who
