It is certain that with my affectionate and constant nature, I should now have been happy for the rest of my life, had Manon remained faithful to me. The better I grew to know her, the more fascinating qualities did I discover in her. Her mind, her heart, her gentleness, and her beauty, were all links in a chain by which it was so sweet to be bound, that I should have asked for no other happiness than to be held captive by it forever. Yet, by a terrible caprice of fate, the very thing which might have given me complete felicity is that which has brought me to the verge of despair! I am at this moment the most miserable of men, in consequence of that self-same constancy from which I might justly have expected a life of supreme contentment and the most perfect rewards of love!
