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 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 nothin