Page:The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter.djvu/250

We have told how the painter Marcel made the acquaintance of Mademoiselle Musette. United one morning by the ministry of caprice, the registrar of the district, they had fancied, as often happens, that their union did not extend to their hearts; but one evening when, after a violent quarrel, they resolved to leave one another on the spot, they perceived that their hands, which they had Joined in a farewell clasp, would no longer quit one another. Almost in spite of themselves fancy had become love. Both, half laughingly, acknowledged it.

“This is very serious; what has happened to us?” said Marcel. “What the deuce have we been up to?”

“Oh!” replied Musette, “we must have been clumsy over it; we did not take enough precautions.”

“What is the matter?” asked Rodolphe, who had become Marcel’s neighbor, entering the room.

“The matter is,” replied Marcel, “that this lady and myself have just made a pretty discovery. We are in love with one another. We must have been attacked by the complaint whilst asleep.”

“Oh! oh! I don’t think that it was whilst you were asleep,” observed Rodolphe. “But what proves that you are in love with one another? Possibly you exaggerate the danger.”

“We cannot bear one another,” said Marcel.

“And we cannot leave one another,” added Musette.