Page:The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter.djvu/271

of paper, covered with closely-written lines, “I have just finished the waist.”

“How nice,” sald Mimi; “then there is only the skirt now left to do. How many pages like that are wanted for the skirt?”

“That depends; but as you are not tall, with ten pages of fifty lines each, and eight words to the line, we can get a decent skirt.”

“I am not very tall, it is true,” said Mimi, seriously; “but it must not look as if we had skimped the stuff. Dresses are worn full, and I should like nice large folds so that it may rustle as I walk.”

“Very good,” replied Rodolphe, seriously. “I will squeeze another word in each line and we shall manage the rustling.”

Mimi fell asleep again quite satisfied.

As she had been guilty of the imprudence of speaking of the nice dress that Rodolphe was engaged in making for her to Mesdemoiselles Musette and Phémie, these two young persons had not failed to inform Messieurs. Marcel and Schaunard of their friend’s generosity towards his mistress, and these confidences had been followed by unequivocal challenges to follow the example set by the poet.

“That is to say,” added Mademoiselle Musette, pulling Marcel’s moustache, “that if things go on like this a week longer I shall be obliged to borrow a pair of your trousers to go out in.”

“I am owed eleven francs by a good house,” replied Marcel; “if I get it in I will devote it to buying you a fashionable fig-leaf.”

“And I,” said Phémie to Schaunard, “my gown is in ribbons.”

Schaunard took three sous from his pocket and gave them to his mistress, saying: