love! | (RUDOLPH _kisses her._)

MIMI. (_disengaging herself_) No, I pray you!

RUD. My sweetheart!

MIMI. Your comrades await you!

RUD. Do you then dismiss me?

MIMI. I should like--no, I dare not!

RUD. Say!

MIMI. (coquettishly) Could I not come with you?

RUD. What, Mimi?
It would be much more pleasant here to stay.
Outside 'tis chilly!

MIMI. To you I'll be neighbor! I'll be always near you.

RUD. On returning?

MIMI. (archly) Who knows, sir?

RUD. Take my arm, my little maiden!

MIMI. (giving her arm to RUDOLPH) I obey you, my lord!

(They go, arm in arm, to the door.)

RUD. You love me? Say!

MIMI. (with abandon)
I love thee!

RUD. and MIMI. My love! My love!

ACT II

"...Gustave Colline, the great philosopher; Marcel, the great
painter; Rudolph, the great poet, and Schaunard, the great musician
--as they were wont to style them selves--regularly frequented the
Cafe Momus, where, being inseparable, they were nicknamed 'The
Four Musketeers.'

"Indeed, they always went about together, played together, dined
together, often without paying the bill, yet always with a beautiful
harmony worthy of the Conservatoire Orchestra.

"Mademoiselle Musetta was a pretty girl of twenty.

"Very coquettish, rather ambitious, but without any pretensions
to spelling.

"Oh! those delightful suppers in the Quartier Latin!

"A perpetual alternative between a blue brougham and an omnibus;
between the Rue Breda and the Quartier Latin.

"...Well! what of that? From time to time I feel the need of breathing
the atmosphere of such a life as this. My madcap existence is like a
song; each of my love-episodes forms a verse of it, but Marcel is its
refrain!"

ACT II

IN THE LATIN QUARTER

CHRISTMAS EVE

A conflux of streets; where they meet, a square, flanked by shops of
all sorts; on one side the Cafe Momus.

Aloof from the crowd, RUDOLPH and MIMI; COLLINE is near a rag-shop,
SCHAUNARD stands outside a tinker's, buying a pipe and a horn, MARCEL
is being hustled hither and thither.

A vast, motley crowd; soldiers, serving maids, boys, girls, children,
students, work girls, gendarmes, etc. It is evening. The shops are
decked with tiny lamps; a huge lantern lights up the entrance to the
Cafe Momus. The cafe is so crowded that some of the customers are
obliged to seat themselves outside.

HAWKERS. (outside their shops)

Come, buy my oranges!
Hot roasted chestnuts!
Trinket