the matter's urgent;
Just tell him softly that Mimi awaits him.

SERGEANT. (_to a passer-by_) Ho! there! What's in the basket?

OFFICIAL. (_after searching the basket_) Empty.

SERGEANT. Pass, there!

(_Other folk now pass through the toll-gate and move off in different
directions. The bell of the Hospice Ste. Therese rings for matins._)

MAR. (_coming out of the inn_) Mimi!

MIMI. I hoped that I should find you here.

MAR. Aye, here we've been for a month:
So to pay for our footing,
Musetta teaches singing
To those who come here.
And I, well--I paint warriors--
There, on the house front!

MIMI. Where is Rudolph?

MAR. Here. 'Tis bitter, pray enter!

MIMI. (_bursting into tears_)

Enter I cannot, no!

MAR. Why not?

MIMI. Oh! good Marcel! oh! help me!

MAR. Say, what has happened?

MIMI. Rudolph is madly jealous!
He loves and yet avoids me!
A glance, a touch, a token,
Suffice to make him jealous,
And start his senseless fury!
And oft at night,
When feigning to be sleeping,
I felt his eyes were watching
to spy upon my slumbers!
How oft he would reproach me!
"You are not mine, Mimi!
You love another gallant!"
Alas! 'tis jealousy that prompts him.
Yet how may I reply?

MAR. Two that live thus, I reckon,
Would be surely better parted.

MIMI. You are right, you speak truly:
'Twere best we were parted.
Will you aid us, then,
Will you aid us to part?
Oft to do this we have striven, but in vain.
Ah! 'tis true, to part were the best.

MAR. I'm happy with Musetta,
And she's happy with me.
Because 'tis mirth that binds us together.
Laughter, music and song,
Ever our love prolong.

MIMI. Ah! then, aid us, I pray you!

MAR. 'Tis well, 'tis well! Now will I wake him.

MIMI. Wake him?

MAR. Overcome with fatigue,
Just as dawn was approaching,
On the bench fast lie slumbers,

(_Motions MIMI to look through the tavern window_)

Behold him! (_MIMI coughs persistently_)

What coughing!

MIMI. Unceasingly it shakes me,
And Rudolph now forsakes me.
And says to me, "It is over!"
At daybreak swift escaping,
I hurried here to find him.

MAR. (_watching RUDOLPH inside the tavern_)
He's moving, waking, and wants me.
Come, then.

MIMI. He must not see me.

MAR. Well, hide yourself out there.

(_Points to the plane-trees. MIMI hides behind the trees._)

RUD. (_coming out of the inn, hastens towards MARCEL_)
Marcel! at last I've found you,
Where none can hear us.
I want a separation