"N.B.—There will be plates."
"Gentlemen," said Marcel, when communicating the letter to his comrades, "the news is confirmed, Rodolphe has really a mistress; further he invites us to dinner, and the postscript promises crockery. I will not conceal from you that this last paragraph seems to me a lyrical exaggeration, but we shall see."
The following day at the hour named, Marcel, Gustave Colline, and Alexander Schaunard, keen set as on the last day of Lent, went to Rodolphe's, whom they found playing with a sandy haired cat, whilst a young woman was laying the table.
"Gentlemen," said Rodolphe, shaking his friends' hands and indicating the young lady, "allow me to introduce you to the mistress of the household."
"You are the household, are you not?" said Colline, who had a mania for this kind of joke.
"Mimi," replied Rodolphe, "I present my best friends; now go and get the soup ready."
"Oh madame," said Alexander Schaunard, hastening towards Mimi, "you are as fresh as a wild flower."
After having satisfied himself that there were really plates on the table, Schaunard asked what they were going to have to eat. He even carried his curiosity so far as to lift up the covers of the stewpans in which the dinner was cooking. The presence of a lobster produced a lively impression upon him.
As to Colline, he had drawn Rodolphe aside to ask about his philosophical article.
"My dear fellow, it is at the printer's. 'The Beaver' appears next Thursday."