116
THE STORY OF MANON LESCAUT.
the door and joined us. The coach, which was waiting for us a few houses further down the street, drove up to receive us, and we lost not an instant in leaving that quarter of the town behind us.
Although I could not shut my eyes to the fact that this proceeding was a piece of downright rascality, I did not consider it by any means the most iniquitous that I had to reproach myself with. The money which I had won at play lay far heavier on my conscience. We profited as little by the one as by the other, however, and Heaven ordained that the less dishonorable of these two offences should be the more severely punished.
