"Yes," replied Rodolphe cheerfully, "I believe that the machine will still work. During the last four hours I have once more found the go of bygone time, I have seen Mimi."
"Ah!" said Marcel uneasily. "On what terms are you?"
"Do not be afraid," said Rodolphe, "we only bowed to one another. It went no further than that."
"Really and truly?" asked Marcel.
"Really and truly. It is all over between us, I feel it; but if I can get to work again I forgive her."
"If it is so completely finished," said Marcel, who had read through Rodolphe's verses, "why do you write verses about her?"
"Alas!" replied the poet, "I take my poetry where I can find it."
For a week he worked at this little poem. When he had finished it he read it to Marcel, who expressed himself satisfied with it, and who encouraged Rodolphe to utilize in other ways the poetical vein that had come back to him.
"For," remarked he, "it was not worth while leaving Mimi if you are always to live under her shadow. After all, though," he continued, smiling, "instead of lecturing others, I should do well to lecture myself, for my heart is still full of Musette. Well, after all, perhaps we shall not always be young fellows in love with such imps."
"Alas!" said Rodolphe, "there is no need to say in one's youth, 'Be off with you.'"