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to let Espérance Blanchon go, as he would have taken away his coat, so we kept him to dinner. He at first declined our gracious offer, which did not suit us, but he ended by accepting it on the express condition that he should find the money, and that in order to put us quite at our ease, the expense should be strictly confined to the sum represented by my day’s work. It was a payment already due and not an advance that he made. Murger spread himself round the town and returned with a caravan of pastrycooks, cooks and butlers bearing eatables and drinkables. He had also stuffed his pockets with several pounds of candles. It was, indeed, his mania and his luxury to give himself what he called a ‘feast of light.’ The forty francs of the Russian prince at the time when he received them passed away in a great measure in private illuminations. He, who only worked at night, had none the less a passion for light and light most intense, believing that to see clearly with the eyes added to the lucidity of the mind. We dined cheerfully, despite the scant supply of crockery, and dessert was farther enlivened by the expected arrival of Mimi and Phémie Teinturière. Murger was still in a tail-coat as his frock continued to drape our young pork-butcher in its folds. He profited by this to slip away and go to the tea-party of the no less well furnished than influential critic. I therefore remained with the task of amusing the guests, and above all, of gaining time, for from one moment to another Espérance might have a wish to go off, and how, in that case, was one to restore him his coat? Ten struck, and then eleven, and no Murger. My piano was of great assistance, and the ladies also devoted themselves; Mimi waltzed and Phémie sang. Still Murger did not return. Midnight had struck and the bottles were empty.

“Happily my ‘Symphony on the influence of Blue in Art’ was ready in my head and at the tips of my fingers,