spirits. I affected good humour also. He was laughing in his mind at
my simplicity, while I was not less diverted by his own. During the
whole evening we were thus supplying to each other an inexhaustible
fund of amusement. I contrived, before his departure, to let him have
Manon for another moment to himself; so that he had reason to applaud
my complaisance, as well as the hospitable reception I had given him.

"As soon as he got into his carriage with M. de T----, Manon ran
towards me with extended arms, and embraced me; laughing all the while
immoderately. She repeated all his speeches and proposals, without
altering a word. This was the substance: He of course adored her; and
wished to share with her a large fortune of which he was already in
possession, without counting what he was to inherit at his father's
death. She should be sole mistress of his heart and fortune; and as an
immediate token of his liberality, he was ready at once to supply her
with an equipage, a furnished house, a lady's maid, three footmen, and
a man-cook.

"'There is indeed a son,' said I, 'very different from his father! But
tell me truly, now, does not such an offer tempt you?' 'Me!' she
replied, adapting to the idea two verses from Racine--

Moi! vous me soupconnez de cette perfidie?
Moi! je pourrais souffrir un visage odieux,
Qui rappelle toujours l'Hopital a mes yeux?

'No!' replied I, continuing the parody--

J'aurais peine a penser que l'Hopital, madame,
Fut un trait dont l'amour l'eut grave dans votre ame.

'But it assuredly is a temptation--a furnished house, a lady's maid, a
cook, a carriage, and three servants--gallantry can offer but few more
seductive temptations.'

"She protested that her heart was entirely mine, and that it was for
the future only open to the impressions I chose to make upon it. 'I
look upon his promises,' said she, 'as an instrument for revenge,
rather than as a mark of love.' I asked her if she thought of
accepting the hotel and the carriage. She replied that his money was
all she wanted."

The difficulty was, how to obtain the one without the other; we
resolved to wait for a detailed explanation of the whole project in a
letter which G---- M---- promised to write to her, and which in fact
she received next morning by a servant out of livery, who, very
cleverly, contrived an opportunity of speaking to her alone.

She told him to wait for an answer, and immediately brought t