y thought that
he was going to die in my arms, or that, at least, he would go mad, as
he almost did once before, you remember? I felt I was going to yield, I
was going to recant first, I was going to clasp him in my arms, for
really one must have been utterly heartless to remain insensible to such
grief. But I recollected the words he had said to me the day before,
'You have no spirit if you stay with me, for I no longer love you,' Ah!
As I recalled those bitter words I would have seen Rodolphe ready to
die, and if it had only needed a kiss from me to save him, I would have
turned away my lips and let him perish."

"At last, overcome by fatigue, I sank into a half-sleep. I could still
hear Rodolphe sobbing, and I can swear to you, Marcel, that this sobbing
went on all night long, and that when day broke and I saw in the bed, in
which I had slept for the last time, the lover whom I was going to
leave for another's arms, I was terribly frightened to see the havoc
wrought by this grief on Rodolphe's face. He got up, like myself,
without saying a word, and almost fell flat at the first steps he took,
he was so weak and downcast. However, he dressed himself very quickly,
and only asked me how matters stood and when I was going to leave. I
told him that I did not know. He went off without bidding goodbye or
shaking hands. That is how we separated. What a blow it must have been
to his heart no longer to find me there on coming home, eh?"

"I was there when Rodolphe came in," said Marcel to Mimi, who was out of
breath from speaking so long. "As he was taking his key from the
landlady, she said, 'The little one has left.' 'Ah!' replied Rodolphe.
'I am not astonished, I expected it.' And he went up to his room,
whither I followed him, fearing some crisis, but nothing occurred. 'As
it is too late to go and hire another room this evening we will do so
tomorrow morning,' said he, 'we will go together. Now let us see after
some dinner.' I thought that he wanted to get drunk, but I was wrong. We
dined very quietly at a restaurant where you have sometimes been with
him. I had ordered some Beaune to stupefy Rodolphe a bit. 'This was
Mimi's favorite wine,' said he, 'we have often drunk it together at this
very table. I remember one day she said to me, holding out her glass,
which she had already emptied several times, 'Fill up again, it is good
for one's bones.' A poor pun, eh? Worthy, at the most, of the mistress
of a farce writer. Ah!