“`I approved of all he said,’ she added, `for fear of exciting any suspicions; and being more and more satisfied of the feasibility of my scheme, I only longed for an opportunity of letting you into it, lest you should be alarmed at my not keeping my appointment.  With this view I suggested the idea of sending this young lady to you, in order to have an opportunity of writing; I was obliged to have recourse to this plan, because I could not see a chance of his leaving me to myself for a moment.’

“`He was greatly amused with my proposition; he called his valet, and asking him whether he could immediately find his late mistress, he dispatched him at once in search of her.  He imagined that she would have to go to Chaillot to meet you, but I told him that, when we parted, I promised to meet you again at the theatre, or that, if anything should prevent me from going there, you were to wait for me in a coach at the end of the street of St. Andre; that consequently it would be best to send your new love there, if it were only to save you from the misery of suspense during the whole night.  I said it would be also necessary to write you a line of explanation, without which you would probably be puzzled by the whole transaction.  He consented; but I was obliged to write in his presence; and I took especial care not to explain matters too palpably in my letter.

“`This is the history,’ said Manon, `of the entire affair.  I conceal nothing from you, of either my conduct or my intentions.  The girl arrived; I thought her handsome; and as I doubted not that you would be mortified by my absence, I did most sincerely hope that she would be able to dissipate something of your ennui:  for it is the fidelity of the heart alone that I value.  I should have been too delighted to have sent Marcel, but I could not for a single instant find an opportunity of telling him what I wished to communicate to you.’  She finished her story by describing the embarrassment into which M. de T——­’s letter had thrown G——­ M——­; `he hesitated,’ said she, `about leaving, and assured me that he should not be long absent; and it is on this account that I am uneasy at seeing you here, and that I betrayed, at your appearance, some slight feeling of surprise.’

“I listened to her with great patience.  There were certainly parts of her recital sufficiently cruel and mortifying; for the intention, at least, of the infidelity was so obvious, that she had not even taken the trouble to disguise it.  She could never have imagined that G——­ M——­ meant to venerate her as a vestal.  She must therefore clearly have made up her mind to pass at least one night with him.  What an avowal for a lover’s ears!  However, I considered myself as partly the cause of her guilt, by having been the first to let her know G——­ M——­’s sentiments towards her, and by the silly readiness with which I entered into this rash project.  Besides, by a natural bent of my mind, peculiar I believe to myself, I was duped