desires. I have seen in your eyes a hundred times less resistance than
you now set against me. And these tears which my condition has drawn
from your eyes--tell me, are they shed through indifference or hate?
Are you ashamed to avow a sensibility which honors humanity?"

"Cease, Chevalier," said Ninon, raising her hand in protest, "the
right to claim my liveliest friendship rested with you, I thought you
worthy of it. That is the cause of the friendly looks which you have
mistaken for others of greater meaning, and it is also the cause of
the tears I shed. Do not flatter yourself that you have inspired me
with the passion of love. I can see too plainly that your desires are
the effect of a passing presumption. Come now, you shall know my
heart, and it should destroy all hope for you. It will go so far as to
hate you, if you repeat your protestations of blind tenderness. I do
not care to understand you, leave me, to regret the favors you have so
badly interpreted."

When Ninon learned that her son was plunged into despair and fury on
account of her rejection of his love, her heart was torn with sorrow
and she regretted that she had not at first told him the secret of his
birth, but her solemn promise to de Gersay had stood in her way. She
determined now to remedy the evil and she therefore applied to de
Gersay to relieve her from her promise. De Gersay advised her to
communicate the truth to her son as soon as possible to prevent a
catastrophe which he prophesied was liable to happen when least
expected. She accordingly wrote the Chevalier that at a certain time
she would be at her house in the Saint Antoine suburb and prayed him
to meet her there. The impassioned Chevalier, expecting nothing less
than the gratification of his desires, prepared himself with extreme
care and flew to the assignation. He was disconcerted, however, by