“He saw my father first, in order to make a favourable impression by telling him how quietly I had allowed myself to be brought away, so that his reception of me was less austere than I had expected.  He merely rebuked me in general terms for the offence I had committed, by absenting myself without his permission.  As for my mistress, he said I richly deserved what had happened to me, for abandoning myself to a person utterly unknown; that he had entertained a better opinion of my discretion; but that he hoped this little adventure would make me wiser.  I took the whole lecture only in the sense that accorded with my own notions.  I thanked my father for his indulgence, and promised that I would in future observe a better regulated and more obedient course of conduct.  I felt that I had secured a triumph; for, from the present aspect of affairs, there was no doubt that I should be free to effect my escape from the house even before the night was over.

“We sat down to supper.  They rallied me about my Amiens conquest, and my flight with that paragon of fidelity.  I took their jokes in good part, glad enough at being permitted to revolve in my mind the plans I had meditated; but some words which fell from my father made me listen with earnest attention.  He spoke of perfidy, and the not disinterested kindness he had received at the hands of M. de B——.  I was almost paralysed on hearing the name, and begged of my father to explain himself.  He turned to my brother, to ask if he had not told me the whole story.  My brother answered, that I appeared to him so tranquil upon the road, that he did not suppose I required this remedy to cure me of my folly.  I remarked that my father was doubtful whether he should give me the explanation or not.  I entreated him so earnestly that he satisfied me, or I should rather say tortured me, with the following most horrible narration.

“He began by asking me whether I was really simple enough to believe that I had been really loved by the girl.  I told him confidently that I was perfectly sure of it, and that nothing could make me for a moment doubt it. `Ha, ha, ha!’ said he, with a loud laugh; `that is excellent! you are a pretty dupe!  Admirable idea!  ’Twould be a thousand pities, my poor chevalier, to make you a Knight of Malta, with all the requisites you possess for a patient and accommodating husband.’  He continued in the same tone to ridicule what he was pleased to call my dullness and credulity.

“He concluded, while I maintained a profound silence, by saying that, according to the nicest calculation he could make of the time since my departure from Amiens, Manon must have been in love with me about twelve days; `for,’ said he, `I know that you left Amiens on the 28th of last month; this is, the 29th of the present; it is eleven days since M. de B——­ wrote to me; I suppose he required eight days to establish a perfect understanding with your mistress; so that, take eight and eleven from thirty-one days, the time between the 28th of one month and the 29th of the next, there remains twelve, more or less!’ This joke was followed by shouts of laughter.