Page:The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter.djvu/344

well. It was not poverty that made me leave him, no, I assure you I had grown accustomed to it, and I repeat it was he who sent me away. He trampled on my self-esteem; he said to me that I had no spirit if I stayed with him; he told me that he no longer loved me; that I must get another lover; he even went so far as to indicate a young man who was courting me, and by his taunts, he served to bring me and this young man together. I went with him as much out of spite as from necessity, for I did not love him; you know very well yourself that I do not care for such very young fellows; they are as wearisome and sentimental as harmonicas. Well, what is done is done. I do not regret it, and I would do the same over again. Now that he no longer has me with him, and knows me to be happy with another, Rodolphe is furious and very unhappy. I know someone who met him the other day, his eyes were quite red. That does not astonish me. I felt quite sure it would come to this, and that he would run after me; but you can tell him that he will only lose his time, and that this time it is quite in earnest and for good. Is it long since you saw him, Marcel; and is it true that he is much altered?” inquired Mimi in quite another tone.

“He is greatly altered indeed,” replied Marcel.

“He is grieving, that is certain, but what am I to do? So much the worse for him, he would have it so. It had to come to an end somehow. Try to console him.”

“Oh!” answered Marcel quickly, “the worst of the job is over. Do not disturb yourself about it, Mimi.”

“You are not telling the truth, my dear fellow,” said Mimi, with an ironical little pout. “ Rodolphe will not be so quickly consoled as all that. If you knew what a state he was in the night before I left. It was a Friday, I would not stay that night at my new lover’s because I am superstitious, and Friday is an unlucky day.”