The resolution she had taken gave me far more pleasure than the prospect of gaining five thousand francs. I was encouraged to believe that my heart was not yet lost to all sense of honor, when I felt how deeply it rejoiced at escaping from infamy. But I was born for short-lived joys and lasting sorrows. Fortune rescued me from the brink of one precipice only to hurl me over another.
When I had evinced my delight at her change of purpose by a shower of kisses, I told Manon that M. Lescaut must be informed of it, so that our measures might be taken in concert. He was at first inclined to meet it with
some opposition; but the mention of the four or five thousand livres of ready money to be gained soon won his cheerful assent to our views. It was accordingly arranged that we should all three be present at supper with M. de G——— M———. Our object in this was two-fold. In the first place, we anticipated much diversion from the little comedy in which I was to play the part of Manon's school-boy brother; and, secondly, we should thus prevent the old rake from taking any undue liberties with my mistress, in the exercise of those rights which he would suppose himself to have acquired by paying so liberally in advance.
