Page:Ballads of a Bohemian.djvu/22

20 When like a flash a woman leapt between them and their prey. She took the medicine meant for him; she came down with a crash… “Quick now, and make your get-away, O Julot the apache!”… But no! He turned, ran swiftly back, his arms around her met; They nabbed him sobbing like a kid, and kissing Gigolette.

Now I’m a reckless painter chap who loves a jamboree, And one night in Cyrano’s bar I got upon a spree; And there were trollops all about, and crooks of every kind, But though the place was reeling round I didn’t seem to mind. Till down I sank, and all was blank when In the bleary dawn I woke up in my studio to find—my money gone; Three hundred francs I’d scraped and squeezed to pay my quarter’s rent. “Some one has pinched my wad,” I wailed; “It never has been spent.” And as I racked my brains to seek how I could raise some more, Before my cruel landlord kicked me cowering from the door: A knock… “Come in,” I gruffly groaned; I did not raise my head,