hundred francs lying idle."

"The deuce, let us stir them up," said Rodolphe.

"In two or three days I count on drawing them," replied Schaunard. "I do
not conceal from you that on doing so I intend to give a free rein to
some of my passions. There is, above all, at the second hand clothes
shop close by a nankeen jacket and a hunting horn, that have for a long
time caught my eye. I shall certainly present myself with them."

"But," added Marcel and Rodolphe together, "where do you hope to draw
this amount of capital from?"

"Hearken gentlemen," said Schaunard, putting on a serious air, and
sitting down between his two friends, "we must not hide from one
another that before becoming members of the Institute and ratepayers, we
have still a great deal of rye bread to eat, and that daily bread is
hard to get. On the other hand, we are not alone; as heaven has created
us sensitive to love, each of us has chosen to share his lot."

"Which is little," interrupted Marcel.

"But," continued Schaunard, "whilst living with the strictest economy,
it is difficult when one has nothing to put anything on one side, above
all if one's appetite is always larger than one's plate."

"What are you driving at?" asked Rodolphe.

"This," resumed Schaunard, "that in our present situation we should all
be wrong to play the haughty when a chance offers itself, even outside
our art, of putting a figure in front of the cypher that constitutes our
capital."

"Well!" said Marcel, "which of us can you reproach with playing the
haughty. Great painter as I shall be some day, have I not consented to
devote my brush to the pictorial reproduction of French soldiers, who
pay me out of their scanty pocket money? It seems to me that I am not
afraid to descend the ladder of my future greatness."

"And I," said Rodolphe, "do not you know that for the past fortnight I
have been writing a medico-chirurgical epic for a celebrated dentist,
who has hired my inspiration at fifteen sous the dozen lines, about half
the price of oysters? However, I do not blush; rather than let my muse
remain idle, I would willingly put a railway guide into verse. When one
has a lyre it is meant to be made use of. And then Mimi has a burning
thirst for boots."

"Then," said Schaunard, "you will not be offended with me when you know
the source of that Pactolus, the overflowing of which I am awaiting."

The following is the history of Schaunard's two hundred francs:--

Abou