Scene II. Parlour in the Seminary of St. Sulpice. Nuns and visitors,

who have just attended religious service, are praising the sermon delivered by _Des Grieux_, who enters a little later attired in the garb of an abbé. The ladies withdraw, leaving _Des Grieux_ with his father, who has come in unobserved, and now vainly endeavours to dissuade his son from taking holy orders. Left alone, _Des Grieux_ cannot banish _Manon_ from his thoughts. "Ah! fuyez douce image" (Ah! depart, image fair), he sings, then slowly goes out.

Almost as if in answer to his soliloquy, the woman whose image he cannot put away enters the parlour. From the chapel chanting is heard. Summoned by the porter of the seminary, _Des Grieux_ comes back. He protests to _Manon_ that she has been faithless and that he shall not turn from the peace of mind he has sought in religious retreat.

Gradually, however, he yields to the pleading of the woman he loves. "N'est-ce plus ma main que cette main presse?... Ah! regarde-moi! N'est-ce plus Manon?" ("Is it no longer my hand, your own now presses?... Ah! look upon me! Am I no longer Manon?") The religious chanting continues, but now only as a background to an impassioned love duet--"Ah! Viens, Manon, je t'aime!" (Ah, Manon, Manon! I love thee.)