Page:The Story of Manon Lescaut and the Chevalier Des Grieux.djvu/67

curiosity, or, perhaps, some sense of penitence at having- betrayed me (which of the two sentiments I have never been able to determine), excited her interest in a name so like mine ; and she came to the Sorbonne with some other ladies. She was present during my presentiition of my thesis, and doubtless had little difficulty in I'ecognizing me. I was entirely unconscious of her presence, for, in these places, as you know, there are private boxes reserved for ladies, in which they are hidden from view behind lattice- work screens. 1 I'eturned to St. Sulpice, covered with glory and overwhelmed with compliments. It was then six o'clock in the evening. A few minutes after my re- tiu'n, I was infonned that a lady desired to see me. 1 proceeiied at once to the parlor, little susjx^cting the stiirt- ling apparition that there awaited me. Munoii I It was she — but more radiantly beautiful than 1 had ever seen her. She was in her eighteenth year, and words fail Ine to descrilx^ liei- loveliness. There was a delicate grace, a swe<4riess, a fascination about her which might have been envied by the (Joddess of Love herself. To my eyes she se(Mued a vision of enchantment. 1 was so overcome with emotion at seeing her that I could not utter a word ; and, unable to conjecture what the object of her visit could be, 1 stood trembling and with my eyes cast down, awaiting her explanation. For some minutes her embarrassment was as great as my own, but at last, finding that I did not break the silence, she cov- ered her face with hei* hands to hide the tears which were beginning to fall from her eyes, and, in a timid voice, said that she knew she deserved my hatred for her unfaithful- ness, but that if I had ever reall}' loved her, I had been very cruel to allow two yeai*s to go by without making any effort to let her know what had become of me, and