Page:The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter.djvu/14

resided for some time and who urged him to devote himself to prose fiction.

About the year 1844 Murger joined the staff of the Corsaire, in which, in 1848, he published The Bohemians. The work caused a sensation in literary circles, but the limited circulation of the periodical prevented this from extending to the general public. It may be worthy of note that the author received fifteen francs for each installment of the work as it appeared in the Corsaire, and that he sold the complete volume for five hundred francs to a publisher who got rid of seventy thousand copies. Murger found life still hard till M. Barrière, a young dramatic author, proposed to him that they should turn the book into a play. At this time Murger was living in an attic in the Latin Quarter, and on the afternoon when the playwright presented himself there he found the novelist in bed. Presuming that he was ill Barrière was about to beat a retreat, but Murger courteously begged of him to enter and avail himself of the only chair which the room contained. When Barrière had broached the subject of his visit Murger readily fell in with his suggestion, and the pair soon became so friendly that the dramatist suggested an adjournment to a neighboring café. “I am sorry to say that I can’t come,” replied Murger, with some little embarrassment. “Why not? surely you are not ill,” urged Barrière. “No,” responded the novelist, “but the fact is—I haven’t a pair of trousers to put on.” Then, as Barrière looked at him in amazement, he proceeded to relate that an impecunious Bohemian friend, having to solicit a favor of some functionary, had borrowed his only pair of trousers that morning, and that he, Murger, was compelled to remain in bed until his friend turned up again. After a hearty laugh Barrière offered to go and buy his new acquaintance another pair of pantaloons, but Murger de-