t beat almost audibly in my bosom.
I said to M. de T----, 'Go in alone, and prepare her for my visit; I
fear that she may be overcome by seeing me unexpectedly.' The door was
opened. I remained in the passage, and listened to the conversation.
He said that he came to bring her consolation; that he was a friend of
mine, and felt deeply interested for the happiness of us both. She
asked with the tenderest anxiety, whether he could tell her what had
become of me. He promised that she should soon see me at her feet, as
affectionate and as faithful as ever. 'When?' she asked. 'This very
day,' said he; 'the happy moment shall not be long delayed; nay, this
very instant even, if you wish it.' She at once understood that I was
at the door; as she was rushing towards it, I entered. We embraced
each other with that abounding and impassioned tenderness, which an
absence of many months makes so delicious to those who truly love. Our
sighs, our broken exclamations, the thousand endearing appellations of
love, exchanged in languishing rapture, astonished M. de T----, and
affected him even to tears.

"'I cannot help envying you,' said he, as he begged us to be seated;
'there is no lot, however glorious, that I would hold as comparable to
the possession of a mistress at once so tender and impassioned.' 'Nor
would I,' I replied, 'give up her love for universal empire!'

"The remainder of an interview which had been so long and so ardently
desired by me, was of course as tender as the commencement. Poor Manon
related all her adventures, and I told her mine: we bitterly wept over
each other's story. M. de T---- consoled us by his renewed promises to
exert himself in our service. He advised us not to make this, our
first interview, of too long duration, that he might have the less
difficulty in procuring us the same enjoyment again. He at length
induced us to follow his advice. Manon especially could not reconcile
herself to the separation: she made me a hundred times resume my seat.
At one time she held me by my hands, at another by my coat. 'Alas!'
she said, 'in what an abode do you leave me! Who will answer for my
ever seeing you again?' M. de T---- promised her that he would often
come and see her with me. 'As to the abode,' he said, 'it must no
longer be called the Magdalen; it is Versailles! now that it contains a
person who deserves the empire of all hearts.'

"I made the man who attended a present as I went out,