"What can we do?... Fate is jealous." ...
And when, three days before their departure, Mimotchka cried bitterly on his shoulder, he stroked her hair and said rather absently:
"What can we do? We must submit. We were happy.... Fate is jealous.... Voyons, du courage.... We must look the inevitable in the face.... Let us be thankful to Providence for these bright moments. You are still so young....
"You will know new feelings And choose new friends.'"
"Jamais, jamais.... How can you talk like that! Don't you care if I get to love someone else? Tu ne m'as jamais aimée!... Oh, Val, Val!"
"Enfant! voyons, ne pleurez donc pas.... What does it matter? I have had the spring flowers, someone else will have the fruits.... Don't look so terrified!... Je connais la vie, voilà tout!... You're not angry with me?... No!... Let me kiss your eyes! How I love kissing them I ... Fate willed it otherwise.... We have gathered the flowers."
And then came a verse from Heine and a verse from Fett.
"I shall not forget you; no, never, and do you remember too,
'Rappelle-toi, lorsque l'aurore craintive.'" ...
But Mimotchka only went on crying quietly and silently, shaking her head and kissing his hands, while her copious tears dropped like hail on the necktie of "Love and Treachery."