LETTER 100
The Viscount De Valmont to the Marchioness De Merteuil
LETTER 100Visible text2 paragraphs
My dear friend! I am betrayed, bubbled, ruined; I am enraged beyond expression: Madame de Tourvel is gone off. She is gone, and I knew nothing of it! I was not in the way to oppose her, to reproach her with her base treachery! Do not imagine I should have let her go quietly; she should have stayed, had I been even obliged to have used force. Fool as I was! I slept peaceably, wrapped in a credulous security! I slept whilst the thunder struck me! I cannot conceive the meaning of this abrupt departure; I will forever renounce the knowledge of women.
When I recall the transactions of yesterday! -- or rather the evening -- the melting look, the tender voice, the squeezing the hand -- all the while planning her flight.