Page:The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter.djvu/345

“You are wrong, Mimi, in love affairs Friday is a lucky day, the ancients called it Dies Veneris.”

“I do not know Latin,” said Mademoiselle Mimi, continuing her narration. I was coming back then from Paul’s and found Rodolphe waiting for me in the street. It was late, past midnight, and I was hungry, for I had had no dinner. I asked Rodolphe to go and get something for supper. He came back half an hour later; he had run about a great deal to get nothing worth speaking of, some bread, wine, sardines, cheese and an apple tart. I had gone to bed during his absence, and he laid the table beside the bed. T pretended not to notice him, but I could see him plainly, he was pale as death, he shuddered and walked about the room like a man who does not know what he wants to do. He noticed several packages of clothes on the floor in one corner. The sight of them seemed to annoy him, and he placed the screen in front of them in order not to see them. When all was ready we began to sup, he tried to make me drink, but I was no longer hungry or thirsty, and my heart was quite full. He was cold, for we had nothing to make a fire of, and one could hear the wind whistling in the chimney. It was very sad. Rodolphe looked at me, his eyes were fixed; he put his hand in mine and I felt it tremble, it was burning and icy all at once. ‘This is the funeral supper of our loves,’ he said to me in a low tone. I did not answer, but I had not the courage to withdraw my hand from his. ‘I am sleepy,’ said I at last, ‘it is late, let us go to sleep.’ Rodolphe looked at me, I had tied one of his handkerchiefs about my head on account of the cold; he took it off without saying a word. ‘Why do you want to take that off?’ said I, ‘I am cold.’ ‘Oh! Mimi,’ said he, ‘I beg of you, it will not matter to you, to put on your little striped cap for to-night.’ It was a night-cap of striped cotton, white and brown. Rodolphe was very