Page:Ballads of a Bohemian.djvu/22

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,