Page:The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter.djvu/283

out of the window on Coco’s cage, and the creature will die as certainly as if Pope Alexander VI. had invited it to dinner.”

“I thought of that myself,” said the Englishman; “but the beast is taken too good care of. The piano is surer.”

Schaunard looked at the other without catching his meaning at once.

“See here,” resumed the Englishman, “the actress and her animal always sleep till twelve. Follow my reasoning—”

“Go on: I am at the heels of it.”

“T intend to disturb their sleep. The law of the country authorizes me to make music from morning to night. Do you understand?

“But that will not be so disagreeable for her, if she hears me play the piano all day—for nothing, too. I am a first-rate hand, if I only had a lung gone”—

“Exactly; but I don’t want you to make good music. You must only strike on your instrument, thus,” trying a scale, “and always the same thing without pity, only one scale. I understand medicine a little; that drives people mad. They will both go mad; that is what I look for. Come, Mr. Musician, to work at once. You shall be well paid.”

“And so,” said Schaunard, who had recounted the above details to his friends, “this is what I have been doing for the last fortnight. One scale continually from seven in the morning till dark. It is not exactly serious art. But then the Englishman pays me two hundred francs a month for my noise; it would be cutting one’s throat to refuse such a windfall. I accepted, and in two or three days I take my first month’s money.”

It was after these mutual confidences that the three friends agreed amongst themselves to profit by the general