Manon Lescaut

Manon and Des Grieux are again happy. They have enough money to live on and enjoy each other’s company. Des Grieux returns to gambling “in various less disreputable gatherings, where, since fortune favoured [him], [he] was spared the humiliation of having to resort to cheating” (83). Manon makes friends “with several young women” (83) to pass the time while Des Grieux gambles.

All seems well until one of the servants reports that “a certain foreign nobleman appeared to have taken a great fancy to Mademoiselle Manon” (83). This nobleman, an Italian prince, follows Manon everywhere, trying to find an opportunity to speak to her alone. Des Grieux tries to believe in Manon’s innocence and does nothing more than ask the servant to observe Manon closely and report back to him. A few days later, the servant reports that Manon gave the prince a letter. Manon, however, appears unbothered, complaining only that Des Grieux is not spending enough time with her. She asks him to spend the next day with her.

They spend most of the day with Manon styling Des Grieux’s hair, until the Italian prince visits. Des Grieux is enraged, but Manon “seized with one hand the hair that was floating free on [Des Grieux’s] shoulders” and dragged him “to her door,” where she says to the prince, “Here is the man I love, the man I have vowed to love my whole life long” (87).