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we shall perhaps be guilty of a mistake. Think on it. Are you not afraid that when they resemble the engravings in ‘The Scarf of Iris,’ these splendors will exercise a deplorable influence upon their characters, and does it suit young fellows like us to behave towards women as if we were aged and wrinkled dotards? It is not that I hesitate about sacrificing about fifteen or eighteen francs to dress Phémie; but I tremble. When she has a new bonnet she will not even recognize me, perhaps. She looks so well with only a flower in her hair. What do you think about it, philosopher?” broke off Schaunard, addressing Colline, who had come in within the last few minutes.

“Ingratitude is the offspring of kindness,” observed the philosopher.

“On the other hand,” continued Schaunard, “when your mistresses are well dressed, what sort of a figure will you cut beside them in your dilapidated costumes? You will look like their waiting maids. I do not speak for myself,” he broke off, drawing himself up in his nankeen jacket, “for, thank heaven, I could go anywhere now.”

However, despite the spirit of opposition shown by Schaunard, it was once more agreed that the next day all the shops of the neighborhood should be ransacked to the advantage of the ladies.

And, indeed, the next day, at the very moment that we have seen, at the beginning of this chapter, Mademoiselle Mimi woke up very much astonished at Rodolphe’s absence, the poet and his two friends were ascending the stairs, accompanied by a shopman from the Deux Magots and a milliner with specimens. Schaunard, who had bought the famous hunting horn, marched before them playing the overture to “The Caravan.”

Musette and Phémie, summoned by Mimi, who was living on the lower floor, descended the stairs with the swift-