If the ARP comes back with the cached MAC address for that network, the Mac continues using the valid DHCP lease it was given. It sends a DHCP request to renew that lease, and I assume would reconfigure the interface if the request fails and discovery has to start over.
From my recollection of the DHCP RFC, if a server hands you a lease for one week, you're allowed to use that address for a week, even if you go offline for 3 days in the middle. In practice, this may not be the case.