(MIMI and RUDOLPH joining their friends.)

RUD. (accompanied by MIMI) Two places.

COL.  Let’s have supper.

RUD.  So we have come. (introducing Mimi)
This is Mimi,
The merry flower girl;
And now she’s come to join us. 
Our party is completed—­
For I shall play the poet,
While she’s the muse incarnate. 
Forth from my brain flow songs of passion,
As, at her touch the pretty buds blow;
As in the soul awaketh beautiful love!

MAR. (ironically) My word, what high falutin’!

COL. Digna est intrari.

SCH. Ingrediat si necessit.

COL.  I’ll grant only an accessit!

(RUDOLPH makes MIMI sit down.  All being seated, the waiter returns with the menu.)

COL. (with an air of great importance) Some sausage!

PAR. (faintly in the distance) Who’ll buy some pretty toys from
Parpignol?

(Boys and girls running out from the shops and adjoining streets.)

BOYS and GIRLS.  Parpignol!  Parpignol!

(Enter PARPIGNOL from the Rue Dauphin, pushing a barrow festooned with foliage, flowers and paper lanterns.)

PAR. (crying) Who’ll buy some pretty toys from Parpignol?

CHILDREN, (crowding and jumping round the barrow)
Parpignol!  Parpignol! 
With his pretty barrow bright with flowers!

(admiring the toys)

I want the horn! and I the horse! 
Get away, they are mine! 
I want the gun! and I the whip! 
No, the drum shall be mine!

(At the cries of the children, the mothers try, but without success, to lead them away from PARPIGNOL, scolding loudly.)

MOTHERS. 
Ah! wait a bit, you dirty little rascals. 
What can it be that sets you all a-gaping? 
Get home to your beds, get home, lazy rascals,
Or you shall all have a tidy beating.

(The children refuse to go.  One of them cries for Parpignol’S toys and his mother pulls his ear.  The mothers, relenting, buy some.  Parpignol moves down the street, followed by the children, pretending to play on their toy instruments.)

PAR. (in the distance) Who’ll buy some pretty toys of Parpignol!

(The waiter presents the menu, which the four friends carefully scrutinize in turn.)

SCH.  Bring some venison.

MAR.  I’ll have turkey.

RUD. (in an undertone to MIMI) Mimi, what would you like?

MIMI.  Some custard!

SCH.  And some Rhenish!

COL.  Bring some claret, too!

SCH.  And some lobster, only shell it! 
The best you’ve got—­for a lady!

MAR. (disconcerted at the sight of MUSETTA; to the waiter)

And I’ll have a phial of poison! (throwing himself on a chair)

SCH., COL. and RUD. (turning on hearing MARCEL’S exclamation)