another on the spot, they
perceived that their hands, which they had joined in a farewell clasp,
would no longer quit one another. Almost in spite of themselves fancy
had become love. Both, half laughingly, acknowledged it.

"This is very serious. What has happened to us?" said Marcel. "What the
deuce have we been up to?"

"Oh!" replied Musette. "We must have been clumsy over it. We did not
take enough precautions."

"What is the matter?" asked Rodolphe, who had become Marcel's neighbor,
entering the room.

"The matter is," replied Marcel, "that this lady and myself have just
made a pretty discovery. We are in love with one another. We must have
been attacked by the complaint whilst asleep."

"Oh oh! I don't think that it was whilst you were asleep," observed
Rodolphe. "But what proves that you are in love with one another?
Possibly you exaggerate the danger."

"We cannot bear one another," said Marcel.

"And we cannot leave one another," added Musette.

"There, my children, your business is plain. Each has tried to play
cunning, and both have lost. It is the story of Mimi and myself. We
shall soon have run through two almanacs quarrelling day and night. It
is by that system that marriages are rendered eternal. Wed a 'yes' to a
'no,' and you obtain the union of Philemon and Baucis. Your domestic
interior will soon match mine, and if Schaunard and Phemie come and live
in the house, as they have threatened, our trio of establishments will
render it a very pleasant place of residence."

At that moment Gustave Colline came in. He was informed of the accident
that had befallen Musette and Marcel.

"Well, philosopher," said the latter, "what do you think of this?"

Colline rubbed the hat that served him for a roof, and murmured, "I felt
sure of it beforehand. Love is a game of chance. He who plays at bowls
may expect rubbers. It is not good for man to live alone."

That evening, on returning home, Rodolphe said to Mimi--

"There is something new. Musette dotes on Marcel, and will not leave
him."

"Poor girl!" replied Mimi. "She who has such a good appetite, too."

"And on his side, Marcel is hard and fast in love with Musette."

"Poor fellow!" said Mimi. "He who is so jealous."

"That is true," observed Rodolphe. "He and I are pupils of Othello."

Shortly afterwards the households of Rodolphe and Marcel were reinforced
by the household of Schaunard, the musician, moving into the house with
Phemie Teintu