Page:The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter.djvu/196

that he would oblige them by serving what they had asked for. Momus made no answer but backed out, twisting his napkin. For a quarter of an hour he held a consultation with his wife, who, thanks to her liberal education at the St. Denis Convent, fortunately had a weakness for arts and letters, and advised him to serve the supper.

“To be sure,” said the landlord, “ they may have money for once, by chance.”

So he told the waiter to take up whatever they asked for, and then plunged into a game of piquet with an old customer. Fatal imprudence!

From ten to twelve the waiter did nothing but run up and downstairs. Every moment he was asked for something more. Musette would eat English-fashion, and change her fork at every mouthful. Mimi drank all sorts of wine, in all sorts of glasses. Schaunard had a quenchless Sahara in his throat. Colline played a cross-fire with his eyes, and while munching his napkin, as his habit was, kept pinching the leg of the table, which he took for Phémie’s knee. Marcel and Rodolphe maintained the stirrups of self-possession, expecting the catastrophe, not without anxiety.

The stranger regarded the scene with grave curiosity; from time to time he opened his mouth as if for a smile; then you might have heard a noise like that of a window which creaks in shutting. It was the stranger laughing to himself.

At a quarter before twelve the bill was sent up. It amounted to the enormous sum of twenty-five francs and three-quarters.

“Come,” said Marcel, “we will draw lots for who shall go and diplomatize with our host. It is getting serious.” They took a set of dominoes; the highest was to go.

Unluckily, the lot fell upon Schaunard, who was an