Manon Lescaut
Paris. I did not approve of this; but, in order partly at least to
satisfy her, I said that we might hire furnished apartments, and that
we might sleep there whenever we were late in quitting the assembly,
whither we often went; for the inconvenience of returning so late to
Chaillot was her excuse for wishing to leave it. We had thus two
dwellings, one in town and the other in the country. This change soon
threw our affairs into confusion, and led to two adventures, which
eventually caused our ruin.
"Manon had a brother in the Guards. He unfortunately lived in the very
street in which we had taken lodgings. He one day recognised his
sister at the window, and hastened over to us. He was a fellow of the
rudest manners, and without the slightest principle of honour. He
entered the room swearing in the most horrible way; and as he knew part
of his sister's history, he loaded her with abuse and reproaches.
"I had gone out the moment before, which was doubtless fortunate for
either him or me, for I was little disposed to brook an insult. I only
returned to the lodgings after he had left them. The low spirits in
which I found Manon convinced me at once that something extraordinary
had occurred. She told me of the provoking scene she had just gone
through, and of the brutal threats of her brother. I felt such
indignation, that I wished to proceed at once to avenge her, when she
entreated me with tears to desist.
"While we were still talking of the adventure, the guardsman again
entered the room in which we sat, without even waiting to be announced.
Had I known him, he should not have met from me as civil a reception as
he did; but saluting us with a smile upon his countenance, he addressed
himself to Manon, and said, he was come to make excuses for his
violence; that he had supposed her to be living a life of shame and
disgrace, and it was this notion that excited his rage; but having
since made enquiry from one of our servants, he had learned such a
character of me, that his only wish was now to be on terms with us both.
"Although this admission, of having gone for information to one of my
own servants, had in it something ludicrous as well as indelicate, I
acknowledged his compliments with civility, I thought by doing so to
please Manon, and I was not deceived--she was delighted at the
reconciliation. We made him stay to dine with us.
"In a little time he became so familiar, that hearing us speak of our
return to Chaillot, he insisted on accompanying us. We were obliged to
give him a seat in our carriage. This was in fact putting him into
possession, for he soon began to feel so much pleasure in our company,
that he made our house his home, and made himself in some measure
master of all that belonged to us. He called me his brother, and,
under the semblance of fraternal freedom, he put himself on such a
footing as to introduce all his friends without ceremony into our house
at Chaillot, and there entertain them at our expense. His magnificent
uniforms were procured of my tailor and charged to me, and he even
contrived to make Manon and me responsible for all his debts. I
pretended to be blind to this system of tyranny, rather than annoy
Manon, and even to take no notice of the sums of money which from time
to time he received from her. No doubt, as he played very deep, he was
honest enough to repay her a part sometimes, when luck turned in his
favour; but our finances were utterly inadequate to supply, for any
length of time, demands of such magnitude and frequency.
"I was on the point of coming to an understanding with him, in order to
put an end to the system, when an unfortunate accident saved me that
trouble, by involving us in inextricable ruin.
"One night we stopped in Paris to sleep, as it had now indeed become
our constant habit. The servant-maid who on such occasions remained
alone at Chaillot, came early the next morning to inform me that our
house had taken fire in the night, and that the flames had been
extinguished with great difficulty. I asked whether the furniture had
suffered. She answered, that there had been such confusion, owing to
the multitude of strangers who came to offer assistance, that she could
hardly ascertain what damage had been done. I was principally uneasy
about our money, which had been locked up in a little box. I went off
in haste to Chaillot. Vain hope! the box had disappeared!
"I discovered that one could love money without being a miser. This
loss afflicted me to such a degree that I was almost out of my mind. I
saw at one glance to what new calamities I should be exposed: poverty
was the least of them. I knew Manon thoroughly; I had already had
abundant proof that, although faithful and attached to me under happier
circumstances, she could not be depended upon in want: pleasure and
plenty she loved too well to sacrifice them for my sake. 'I shall lose
her!' I cried; 'miserable chevalier! you are about then to lose all
that you love on earth!' This thought agitated me to such a degree
that I actually for some moments considered whether it would not be
best for me to end at once all my miseries by death. I however
preserved presence of mind enough to reflect whether I was entirely
without resource, and an idea occurred to me which quieted my despair.
It would not be impossible, I thought, to conceal our loss from Manon;
and I might perhaps discover some ways and means of supplying her, so
as to ward off the inconveniences of poverty.
"I had calculated in endeavouring to comfort myself, that twenty
thousand crowns would support us for ten years. Suppose that these ten
years had now elapsed, and that none of the events which I had looked
for in my family had occurred. What then would have been my course? I
hardly know; but whatever I should then have done, why may I not do
now? How many are there in Paris, who have neither my talents, nor the
natural advantages I possess, and who, notwithstanding, owe their
support to the exercise of their talents, such as they are?
"'Has not Providence,' I added, while reflecting on the different
conditions of life, 'arranged things wisely?' The greater number of
the powerful and the rich are fools. No one who knows anything of the
world can doubt that. How admirable is the compensating justice
thereof! If wealth brought with it talent also, the rich would be too
happy, and other men too wretched. To these latter are given personal
advantages and genius, to help them out of misery and want. Some of
them share the riches of the wealthy by administering to their
pleasures, or by making them their dupes; others afford them
instruction, and endeavour to make them decent members of society; to
be sure, they do not always succeed; but that was probably not the
intention of the divine wisdom. In every case they derive a benefit
from their labours by living at the expense of their pupils; and, in
whatever point of view it is considered, the follies of the rich are a
bountiful source of revenue to the humbler classes.
"These thoughts restored me a little to my spirits and to my reason. I
determined first to consult M. Lescaut, the brother of Manon. He knew
Paris perfectly; and I had too many opportunities of learning that it
was neither from his own estates, nor from the king's pay, that he
derived the principal portion of his income. I had about thirty-three
crowns left, which I fortunately happened to have about me. I showed
him my purse, and explained to him my misfortune and my fears, and then
asked him whether I had any alternative between starvation and blowing
out my brains in despair. He coolly replied that suicide was the
resource of fools. As to dying of want, there were hundreds of men of
genius who found themselves reduced to that state when they would not
employ their talents; that it was for myself to discover what I was
capable of doing, and he told me to reckon upon his assistance and his
advice in any enterprise I might undertake.
"'Vague enough, M. Lescaut!' said I to him: 'my wants demand a more
speedy remedy; for what am I to say to Manon?' 'Apropos of Manon,'
replied he, 'what is it that annoys you about her? Cannot you always
find in her wherewithal to meet your wants, when you wish it? Such a
person ought to support us all, you and me as well as herself.' He cut
short the answer which I was about to give to such unfeeling and brutal
impertinence, by going on to say, that before night he would ensure me
a thousand crowns to divide between us, if I would only follow his
advice; that he was acquainted with a nobleman, who was so liberal in
affairs of the kind, that he was certain he would not hesitate for a
moment to give the sum named for the favours of such a girl as Manon.
"I stopped him. 'I had a better opinion of you,' said I; 'I had
imagined that your motive for bestowing your friendship upon me was
very different indeed from the one you now betray.' With the greatest
effrontery he acknowledged that he had been always of the same mind,
and that his sister having once sacrificed her virtue, though it might
be to the man she most loved, he would never have consented to a
reconciliation with her, but with the hope of deriving some advantage
from her past misconduct.
"It was easy to see that we had been hitherto his dupes.
Notwithstanding the disgust with which his proposition inspired me,
still, as I felt that I had occasion for his services, I said, with
apparent complacency, that we ought only to entertain such a plan as a
last resource. I begged of him to suggest some other.
"He proposed to me to turn my youth and the good looks nature had
bestowed upon me to some account, by establishing a liaison with some
generous old dame. This was just as little to my taste, for it would
necessarily have rendered me unfaithful to Manon.
"I mentioned play as the easiest scheme, and the most suitable to my
present situation. He admitted that play certainly was a resource, but
that it was necessary to consider the point well. 'Mere play,' said he,
'with its ordinary chances, is the certain road to ruin; and as for
attempting, alone and without an ally, to employ the little means an
adroit man has for correcting the vagaries of luck, it would be too
dangerous an experiment.' There was, he stated, a third course, which
was to enter into what he called a partnership; but he feared his
confederates would consider my youth an objection to my admittance.
He, however, promised to use his influence with them; and, what was
more than I expected at his hands, he said that he would supply me with
a little money whenever I had pressing occasion for any. The only
favour I then asked of him was to say nothing to Manon of the loss I
had experienced, nor of the subject of our conversation.
"I certainly derived little comfort from my visit to Lescaut; I felt
even sorry for having confided my secret to him: not a single thing had
he done for me that I might not just as well have done for myself,
without troubling him; and I could not help dreading that he would
violate his promise to keep the secret from Manon. I had also reason
to apprehend, from his late avowals, that he might form the design of
making use of her for his own vile purposes, or at least of advising
her to quit me for some happier and more wealthy lover. This idea
brought in its train a thousand reflections, which had no other effect
than to torment me, and throw me again into the state of despair in
which I had passed the morning. It occurred to me, more than once, to
write to my father; and to pretend a new reformation, in order to
obtain some pecuniary assistance from him; but I could not forget that,
notwithstanding all his natural love and affection for me, he had shut