by the ingenuousness of her story—­by that open and winning manner with which she related even the circumstances most calculated to annoy me. `There is nothing of wanton vice,’ said I to myself, `in her transgressions; she is volatile and imprudent, but she is sincere and affectionate.’  My love alone rendered me blind to all her faults.  I was enchanted at the prospect of rescuing her that very night from my rival.  I said to her:  `With whom do you mean to pass the night?’ She was evidently disconcerted by the question, and answered me in an embarrassed manner with BUTS and IFS.

“I felt for her, and interrupted her by saying that I at once expected her to accompany me.

“`Nothing can give me more pleasure,’ said she; `but you don’t approve then of my project?’

“`Is it not enough,’ replied I, `that I approve of all that you have, up to this moment, done?’

“`What,’ said she, `are we not even to take the ten thousand francs with us?  Why, he gave me the money; it is mine.’

“I advised her to leave everything, and let us think only of escaping for although I had been hardly half an hour with her, I began to dread the return of G——­ M——.  However, she so earnestly urged me to consent to our going out with something in our pockets, that I thought myself bound to make her, on my part, some concession, in return for all she yielded to me.

“While we were getting ready for our departure, I heard someone knock at the street door.  I felt convinced that it must be G——­ M——­; and in the heat of the moment, I told Manon, that as sure as he appeared I would take his life.  In truth, I felt that I was not sufficiently recovered from my late excitement to be able to restrain my fury if I met him.  Marcel put an end to my uneasiness, by handing me a letter which he had received for me at the door; it was from M. de T——.

“He told me that, as G——­ M——­ had gone to his father’s house for the money which he wanted, he had taken advantage of his absence to communicate to me an amusing idea that had just come into his head; that it appeared to him, I could not possibly take a more agreeable revenge upon my rival, than by eating his supper, and spending the night in the very bed which he had hoped to share with my mistress; all this seemed to him easy enough, if I could only find two or three men upon whom I could depend, of courage sufficient to stop him in the street, and detain him in custody until next morning; that he would undertake to keep him occupied for another hour at least, under some pretext, which he could devise before G——­ M——­’s return.