Rodolphe was at home and alone.

It needed all his powers of self esteem to keep him from throwing himself upon his mistress's neck.

He gave her a reception full of silent insult, and Mademoiselle Mimi replied by those cold and keen scoffs that drive the weakest and most timid to show their teeth.

In face of the contempt with which his mistress flagellated him with insolent hardihood, Rodolphe's anger broke out fearfully and brutally.

For a moment Mimi, white with terror, asked herself whether she would escape from his hands alive.