MIMI.  Ah me! ah me! 
All is over, life and loving,
All are ended! 
Mimi must die!

MAR.  Softly!

RUD.  Want has wasted her beauty,
And to bring her back to life
Would need far more than love.

MAR.  Nay, Rudolph, but listen!

(Mimi’s violent coughing and sobbing reveal her presence.)

RUD.  Ha!  Mimi!  You here! 
You heard, you heard me? 
Swayed by each light suspicion,
A trifle yet alarms me;
Come, come inside here!

(Seeks to take her into the tavern)

MIMI.  No, that odor is stifling me!

RUD. (affectionately embracing her) Ah, Mimi!

(From the tavern Musetta’s brazen laugh is heard.)

MAR. (running to look through the window.)
Tis Musetta that’s laughing! 
Laughing, flirting! 
Ah! what a hussy! 
I’ll not allow it. (enters the tavern impetuously)

MIMI. (disengaging herself from RUDOLPH’S embrace.) Farewell!

RUD. (surprised) What!  Going?

MIMI.  To the home that she left
At the voice of her lover. 
Sad, forsaken Mimi
Must turn back, heavy-hearted. 
For love and her lover
Are gone, and she must die,
Farewell, then! 
I wish you well! 
Nay, listen! listen! those things,
Those few old things I’ve left behind me,
Within my trunk safely arc stored. 
That bracelet of gold,
The prayer-book you gave me,
Pray wrap them up together in my little apron,
And I will send to fetch them. 
Yet stay!  Beneath the pillow
You’ll find my little bonnet—­
Who knows? 
Maybe you’d like to keep it
To remind you of our love! 
Farewell!  Good-bye!  I wish you well!

RUD.  Then, you are going to leave me? 
Yes, you are going, my little Mimi? 
Ah! farewell, sweet dream of love!

MIMI.  Farewell! farewell! 
Glad awakenings in the morning!

RUD.  Farewell, our sweet love that vanished,
Yet that your smile reviveth!

MIMI. (playfully) Farewell to jealousy and fury! 
Farewell suspicion, and its bitter anguish!

RUD.  Kisses sweet that, as poet,
I bought back with caresses!

MIMI and RUD.  Lonely in winter,
With Death as sole companion! 
But in glad springtime
There’s the sun, the glorious sun!

(From the tavern the sound of breaking plates and glasses is heard)

MUS. (from within) What d’ye mean?  What d’ye mean? (running out)

MAR. (from within)
You were laughing, you were flirting
By the fireside with that stranger!

(stopping on the threshold of the inn and confronting MUSETTA)

And how you colored
When I caught you in the corner!

MUS. (defiantly) Stuff and nonsense! all he said was: 
“Are you very fond of dancing?”
And, half blushing, I made answer: 
“I’d be dancing all day long, sir.”