The Story of Manon Lescaut and of the Chevalier des Grieux/Chapter 13

by L'Abbé Prévost

Chapter XIII.

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My presence and the courteous attentions of Monsieur de T——— soon dissipated any lingering sadness that Manon may have felt.

"Let us forget all our past troubles, dear heart," I said to her on my return, "and begin a new life of greater happiness than we have ever known. Love is a kind master, after all. The pleasures which he gives us more than outweigh all the trials that Fortune can send."

Our supper was a scene of perfect joy. I was prouder and happier with Manon and my hundred pistoles than the richest Partisan^[1] of Paris amid his heaps of gold.

The true way in which to estimate our wealth is by the means we possess of gratifying our desires. I had not one that was unsatisfied. Even the future gave me little anxiety. I felt almost sure that my father would make no difficulty about giving me money enough to live comfortably at Paris, as, being then in my twentieth year, I would soon be entitled to claim my share of my mother's property. I did not hide from Manon the fact that one hundred pistoles formed the whole of my present capital. This was enough to enable me to wait with an easy mind for some addition to my means, which there seemed every prospect of my obtaining, either by right of inheritance, or from the resources of the card-table.

Thus, for the first few weeks, I gave myself up to the enjoyment of my situation. A controlling sense of honor, as well as a lingering dread of the police, led me to defer from day to day the renewal of my relations with the fraternity of the Hôtel de Transilvanie, and I contented myself with playing in some assemblies of less unenviable notoriety, where Fortune so favored me as to spare me the humiliation of resorting to the tricks of the sharper.

I spent part of every afternoon in town, returning to Chaillot for supper, very often accompanied by M. de T———, whose friendship for us grew warmer every day. Manon found distractions which prevented the hours from hanging heavily on her hands. She made the acquaintance of several young women in the neighborhood, whom the arrival of spring had attracted to the village; and, what between walks and the various little diversions of their sex, they beguiled the time pleasantly enough.

They made up a party at cards, playing always for limited stakes, and devoting the winnings to defray the expense of hiring a coach. They drove out daily to enjoy the air in the Bois de Boulogne, and, on my return of an evening, I always found Manon lovelier, happier, and more devoted than ever.

Some clouds arose, however, which seemed to lower threateningly over the fabric of my happiness. But they were quickly dispelled; and the upshot of the affair was rendered so comical by Manon 's frolicsome humor, that I still recur with pleasure to a recollection which brings her once more before me with all her tenderness and all the charming sprightliness of her disposition.

Our valet (the only servant we had) took me aside one day and told me, with an air of great embarrassment, that he had an important secret to impart to me. I encouraged him to speak out freely. After some beating about the bush, he gave me to understand that there was a certain foreigner of rank who seemed to have become deeply enamoured of Miss Manon.

I felt the blood go boiling through every vein in my body.

"Does she return his passion?" I asked sharply, forgetting all considerations of prudence in my anxiety to learn the truth at once.

My sudden display of temper disconcerted the man; he replied uneasily that he had not carried his observations far enough to be able to answer that question. He had noticed, however, for some days past, that this foreigner made a habit of coming regularly to the Bois de Boulogne, where, alighting from his carriage, he would roam about alone among the by-paths, apparently watching for an opportunity of catching a glimpse of Miss Manon or of meeting her. This had led him to strike up an acquaintance with the stranger's servants, in order to find out from them who their master was. They had given him to understand that he was an Italian Prince, and that they suspected him themselves of being engaged in some gallant adventure. This, added the valet, nervously, was all he had been able to learn, as the Prince had sauntered out from under the trees at that moment, and accosting him pleasantly, had asked him his name, and then, as if guessing him to be in our service, had congratulated him on being employed by so charming a lady.

I waited impatiently to hear the rest of his story; but he came to a stop, with some timid excuses, which I attributed merely to my imprudent exhibition of temper. I urged him in vain to continue and to conceal nothing from me. He protested that he knew no more, saying that, as all he had just told me had occurred only the day before, he had not yet had another opportunity of seeing the Prince's servants.

In order to reassure him, I not only praised him for what he had done, but rewarded him liberally; and then, without allowing him to suppose that I entertained the slightest suspicion of Manon, I instructed him, in a calmer tone, to keep a watch on all the foreigner's proceedings.

In reality, the fellow's timidity left me a prey to the cruellest uncertainty, for I was afraid that it might have led him to suppress part of the truth. However, after some reflection, I recovered from my alarm sufficiently to regret that I had yielded to such weakness. I could not justly blame Manon for the fact that some one had chosen to fall in love with her. According to all appearance she was herself ignorant of the conquest she had made; and what was my life to become if I were so readily to open my heart to the inroads of jealousy?

I went back to Paris the next day without having formed any other resolution than that of hastening the advancement of my fortunes by playing for higher stakes, so that I might be in a position to leave Chaillot the moment I saw any cause for uneasiness. That evening I heard nothing to disturb my peace of mind. The foreign Prince had again made his appearance in the Bois de Boulogne, and, on the strength of the previous day's occurrences, had once more drawn my informant into conversation. He had alluded to his passion, but in terms which did not presuppose any understanding with Manon, and had questioned the man closely on a number of points. Finally, he had endeavored to buy him over to his interests by promises of rich reward; and, drawing from his pocket a letter which he had in readiness for the occasion, he had offered him several louis d'or to place it in his mistress's hands—but in vain.

Two days went by without any further incident. The third was more stormy. On returning from town somewhat later than usual, I learned that, while out walking, Manon had separated herself from her companions for a few moments. The stranger, who was following close behind her, had approached, in obedience to a sign from her, and she had handed him a letter, which he had received with every evidence of delight. The only expression of his feelings which he had had time to give was to press the lines amorously to his lips, as she had at once hastened away from him. But she had been in unusually high spirits all the rest of the day; nor had this mood deserted her since her return to the house.

I shuddered, not doubting a word of my valet's story.

"Are you quite sure," I asked him sadly, "that your eyes were not deceiving you?"

He appealed to Heaven to confirm the truth of what he had told me.

There is no saying what I might not have done in the anguish of my heart, had not Manon heard me at the door and run impatiently to meet me, and reproach me for my tardiness. Without waiting for my reply, she loaded me with caresses, and, as soon as we were alone together, upbraided me sharply for having fallen into the habit of returning home so late.

My silence leaving her free to continue, she told me that for three weeks I had not spent one whole day with her, and that she could not bear these long absences of mine. She begged me to devote to her at least one day every now and again; and added that on the morrow, to begin with, she wished to have me with her from morning to night.

"And I shall be, you may depend upon it," answered I, morosely enough.

She did not appear to notice my ill-humor; and, in the exuberance of her delight, which struck me as unusually lively, even for her, she gave me a series of amusing descriptions of how she had passed the day.

"Strange girl!" I muttered to myself; "what am I to expect from this prelude?"

The circumstances of our first separation recurred to my mind; but I thought that, behind all her gayety and caresses, there was to be detected a certain tone of sincerity which accorded well with the indications of her manner.

I readily accounted for my dejection, which I could not banish all through our supper, by attributing it to heavy losses which, I told her, I had been unlucky enough to suffer at play.

I regarded it as a circumstance very much in my favor that the idea of my remaining at Chaillot the following day had been suggested by Manon herself. I thus gained time for deliberation.

The fact that I should be on the spot relieved me of all fears for the morrow; and I had already made up my mind that, if I saw nothing to necessitate my making my discoveries known, I would the next day remove my whole establishment to town, and to a quarter where I should be safe from the intrusion of meddlesome princes. Thanks to this arrangement, I passed a comparatively peaceful night; but it did not save me from the pain I could not but feel at having reason to fear a fresh instance of inconstancy on the part of my mistress.

When I awoke, Manon declared that though the day was to be passed in our lodgings, she by no means intended that I should make that an excuse for a careless toilet; and she added that she meant to dress my hair with her own hands. I boasted a fine head of hair; and this was an amusement in which she had more than once indulged. On this occasion, however, she devoted more care to the task than I had ever seen her take before.

To gratify her I was obliged to seat myself before her dressing-table and to submit to all the little embellishments which her fancy devised for my adornment. During the progress of her work, she would every now and again make me turn my face towards her, and, resting her hands upon my shoulders, subject me to an eager scrutiny. Then—expressing her satisfaction by one or two kisses—she would make me resume my former position, and would proceed with her task. This diversion kept us pleasantly engaged until dinner-time. Her delight in it seemed so unaffected, and her gayety so free from simulation, that, unable to reconcile such appearances of constancy with the project of a base betrayal on her part, I was more than once tempted to unbosom myself to her, and relieve my mind of a burden which was beginning to weigh very heavily upon it. But I indulged the hope, as moment after moment went by, that the avowal would come from her own lips; and I revelled by anticipation in the exquisite sense of triumph that would then be mine.

We went back to her dressing-room, where she was putting the finishing touches to my hair, and I was good-humoredly yielding to her every whim, when the servant came to announce that the Prince of ——— desired to see her. The mention of that name threw me into a violent rage.

"What does this mean?" I cried, thrusting her from me. "Who and what is this Prince?"

She made no response to my questions, but said coolly to the valet: "Show him upstairs." Then she turned to me and added in a bewitching tone, "My own dear love, bear with me for one moment, I beg of you—for just one single moment! Do but consent and I will love you a thousandfold more than ever. Grant me this favor, and you shall have my lifelong gratitude!"

I was speechless with surprise and indignation. She renewed her entreaties, and I was casting about for fitting words of scorn with which to reject them, when, hearing the door of the outer room thrown open, she seized my hair—which was hanging loosely over my shoulders—in one hand, took her looking-glass in the other, and, exerting her whole strength in the effort, dragged me, just as I was, to the door of the dressing-room, which she pushed open with her knee, and thus presented me to the stranger, whom the noise, apparently, had brought to a stand-still in the middle of the room, a spectacle which must have caused him no little astonishment.

The man I saw before me was very richly dressed, but had a decidedly ill-favored face. Notwithstanding his embarrassment at the scene I have just described, he made a profound bow, but Manon did not allow him time to open his lips. Holding her looking-glass before his face, she said to him:

"There, sir, take a good look at yourself, and do me justice. You ask me for my love. Here is the man whom I love, and have sworn to love all my life. Make the comparison for yourself. If you think to rival him in my heart, pray tell me on what grounds; for I beg to assure you that, in the eyes of your humble servant, all the Princes of Italy together are not worth a single one of the hairs which I am now holding in my hand!"

During this madcap speech, which was evidently premeditated on her part, I was vainly struggling to free myself, for the sight of a man of his rank in such a position excited my compassion, and I was anxious to atone for this petty insult by my own courteous apologies. But, quickly recovering his self-possession, he banished any such inclination from my mind by the coarseness of his retort.

"Yes, mademoiselle," he said to Manon, with a forced smile; "my eyes have indeed been opened, and I find that you are much less of a novice than I had supposed."

Then, without favoring her with so much as a glance, he turned and left the room, adding in an undertone as he went out, that French women were no better than Italian. Under the circumstances I was not at all anxious to convert him to a higher opinion of the fair sex.

Releasing my hair from her grasp, Manon threw herself into an arm-chair, and made the room re-echo with peal after peal of laughter. I did not attempt to conceal how deeply I was touched by a sacrifice which I could ascribe only to the promptings of her affection for me. Yet I felt that the jest had been carried too far, and expressed my disapproval of it. She then told me the whole tale, how my rival had laid siege to her for several days in the Bois de Boulogne, ogling and simpering at her until it was impossible for her to mistake the nature of his sentiments; how, at last, he had gone so far as to send her an open declaration of his passion, with his name and all his titles duly set forth, in a letter, the delivery of which he had entrusted to the coachman who drove her and her companions on their daily outings. In this epistle he had made her dazzling promises of wealth and of lifelong devotion on his part, if she would follow him to his home beyond the Alps. She had come back to Chaillot, she said, fully determined to inform me of the whole adventure; but it had occurred to her that we might derive some amusement from the affair; and this fancy afforded such irresistible attraction to her mind that she had replied very graciously to the Italian prince's letter, and granted him permission to pay her a visit. She had enjoyed the further diversion, she added, of making me fall in with the plot without allowing me to have the remotest suspicion of what was going on.

I said nothing about the enlightenment I had obtained from another source; and, intoxicated as I was by this triumph of love, I heartily applauded all that she had done.

1. Partisan: a farmer of taxes.—Translator.