Page:The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter.djvu/221

“And these?” asked Colline, pointing to the lady’s boots; “are they Monsieur Rodolphe’s too?”

“Those are his wife’s,” said the porter.

“His wife’s!” exclaimed Colline in a tone of stupefaction. “Ah! the voluptuary, that is why he will not open the door.”

“Well,” said the porter, “he is free to do as he likes about that, sir. If you will leave me your name I will let him know you called.”

“No,” said Colline, “now that I know where to find him I will call again.”

And he at once went off to tell the important news to his friends.

Rodolphe’s patent leathers were generally considered to be a fable due to Colline’s wealth of imagination, and it was unanimously declared that his mistress was a paradox.

This paradox was, however, a truism, for that very evening Marcel received a letter collectively addressed to the whole of the set. It was as follows:

“Monsieur and Madame Rodolphe, literati, beg you to favor them with your company at dinner to-morrow evening at five o’clock sharp.

“N. B.—There will be plates.”

“Gentlemen,” said Marcel, when communicating the letter to his comrades, “the news is confirmed, Rodolphe has really a mistress; further he invites us to dinner, and the postscript promises crockery. I will not conceal from you that this last paragraph seems to me a lyrical exaggeration, but we shall see.”

The following day at the hour named, Marcel, Gustave, Colline, and Alexander Schaunard, keen set as on the last day of Lent, went to Rodolphe’s whom they found playing