Page:The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter.djvu/144

and singing when the porters came to take away furniture and carpets, and the company were obliged to withdraw. Musette bowed her guests out, singing:

Marcel and Rodolphe alone remained with Musette, who ascended to her room where there was nothing left but the bed.

“Ah, but my adventure is no longer such a lively one after all,” said Musette; “I shall have to take up my quarters out-of-doors.”

“Oh! madame,” said Marcel, “if I had the gifts of Plutus I should like to offer you a temple finer than that of Solomon, but—”

“You are not Plutus. All the same I thank you for your good intentions. Ah!” she added, glancing round the room, “ 1 was getting bored here, and then the furniture was old. I had had it nearly six months. But that is not all, after the dance one should sup.”

“Let us sup-pose,” said Marcel, who had an itch of punning, above all in the morning, when he was terrible.

As Rodolphe had gained some money at the lansquenet played during the evening, he carried off Musette and Marcel to a restaurant which was just opening.

After breakfast, the three, who had no inclination for sleep, spoke of finishing the day in the country, and as they found themselves close to the railway-station they got into the first train that started, and which landed them at Saint Germain.

During the whole of the night of the party and all the rest of the day Marcel, who was gunpowder which a single glance sufficed to kindle, had been violently smitten by