Page:The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter.djvu/246

theatre as fourth chambermaid, and promised to be ready that evening.

“By the way,” said Rodolphe, “tell Mademoiselle Mimi that if she will be guilty of an infidelity to her lover in my favor, and come and pass a night with me, I will give her up all her things.”

Amélie executed Rodolphe’s commission, and gave to his words quite another meaning than that which she had guessed they bore.

“Your Rodolphe is a base fellow,” said she to Mimi; “his proposal is infamous. He wishes by this step to make you descend to the rank of the vilest creatures, and if you go to him not only will he not give you your things, but he will show you up as a jest to all his comrades. It is a plot arranged amongst them.”

“I will not go,” said Mimi, and as she saw Amélie engaged in prearranging her toilette, she asked her whether she was going to the ball.

“Yes,” replied the other.

“With Rodolphe?”

“Yes; he is to wait for me this evening twenty yards or so from here.”

“I wish you joy,” said Mimi, and seeing the hour of the appointment approach, she hurried off to Mademoiselle Amélie’s lover, and informed him that the latter was engaged in a little scheme to deceive him with her own old lover.

The gentleman, jealous as a tiger and brutal to boot, called at once on Mademoiselle Amélie, and announced that he would like her to spend the evening in his company.

At eight o’clock Mimi flew to the spot at which Rodolphe was to meet Amélie. She saw her lover pacing up and down after the fashion of a man waiting for some one, and twice passed close to him without daring to address him.