264
THE STORY OF MANON LESCAUT.
your hands. I bid you, therefore, an eternal farewell. The news of my death, which you will soon receive," I added bitterly, "may perchance revive in your breast some of a father's feelings towards me!"
As I turned away, he cried, in a voice that fairly trembled with passion:
"So you refuse to follow me? Then go! Go to your ruin! Farewell, ungrateful and rebellious boy!"
"Farewell!" I retorted, in a transport of rage and grief, "farewell, most unnatural and inhuman of fathers!"