Page:The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter.djvu/26
struck our host to offer us the spectacle of the Temptation of St. Anthony, for to suggest it to him he had on his mantelshelf amongst other trifles a herd of six little pigs in gingerbread. After he had whispered to Mariette, she suddenly threw everything that covered her to the ground, and went and sat down on Jean Journet’s knees. . . . The apostle remained for a moment confused and undecided. But he suddenly rose, which caused the temptress to slip to the floor. Then he rushed out like a madman, and the staircase echoed with his maledictions.” Mariette ended by leaving the Latin Quarter for the Rue Breda, where she lived an irregular life in more regular fashion, and pursued the career she had chosen in this world more seriously. Murger may say that her life offered alternations of broughams and omnibuses, but it would seem that she only rode in the latter from economical motives. She was careful without being miserly, and amassed a large sum. With this she resolved to proceed to Algiers where her sister was living. Accordingly, about 1863, she embarked at Marseilles on board the Atlas. This boat was never more heard of from the moment of departure, and poor Musette and her treasure lie at the bottom of the Mediterranean.
As to Phémie Teinturière Schanne has surely the most right to speak. “It was at the period when one Alexandre S. wore a nankeen suit of the most revolting yellow, and played on the hunting horn without being a hunter. One evening he had accompanied into a free-and-easy in the Rue Saint Martin a jeweller, the owner of a tenor voice, who wanted to have his accompaniment played by the author of the ‘Symphony on the Influence of Blue in Art.’ Whilst he was at the piano the said Alexandre S. noted out of the corner of his eye the nervous agitation produced by his music in the young dilettanti of the locality. Soon