No sooner had he stepped into his coach with M. de T———, than Manon ran with open arms towards me, and catching me in her embrace, gave vent to her mirth in peals of laughter. She repeated to me, word for word, all the speeches and proposals he had favored her with. The upshot of them was this: He adored her; he desired to share with her the income of forty thousand livres which he was now enjoying, not to speak of his expectations after his father's death; she was to be mistress of his heart and fortune, and, as an earnest of his bounty, he was ready at once to give her a coach, a furnished house, a maid, three footmen, and a cook.
"Here is a son, it must be owned, whose ideas of generosity are very different from his father's," I said to Manon; "but, to be candid with me," I added, "are you not tempted by these offers?"
"I?" she responded, adapting two verses of Racine's to express her thought:
[1]"I! capable of perfidy so base?
I! willing to behold that hated face,
Which, whene'er forced on my reluctant view,
Doth mem'ries of the Hôpital renew?"
"No," I went on, continuing the parody:
"The Hôpital was scarce Love's shaft, to trace
Upon your heart the image of his face.
- ↑
"Moi! vous me soupçonnez de cette perfidie?
Moi! je pourrais souffrir un visage odieux
Qui rappelle toujours l'Hôpital à mes yeux?"· · · · · "J'aurais peine à penser que l'Hôpital, Madame,
Fût un trait dont l'Amour l'eût gravé dans votre âme."The pun on the word trait is almost untranslatable.—Tr.
