"Still I should be very glad to offer you a glass of punch, and have a few minutes' talk with you. Is there no other place in the vicinity where you could step in without being hindered by any mathematical difficulties?" asked Barbemuche, who thought it a good opportunity for saying something very clever. Colline mused an instant. "There is a little place here," he said, pointing to a wine shop, "where I stand on a better footing." Barbemuche made a face, and seemed to hesitate. "Is it a respectable place?" he demanded. His cold and reserved attitude, his limited conversation, his discreet smile, and especially his watch chain with charms on it, all led Colline to suppose that Barbemuche was a clerk in some embassy, and that he feared to compromise himself by going into some wine shop. "There is no danger of anyone seeing us," said he. "All the diplomatic body is in bed by this time." Barbemuche made up his mind to go in, though at the bottom of his heart he would have given a good deal for a false nose. For greater security, he insisted on having a private room, and took care to fasten a napkin before the glass door of it. These precautions taken, he appeared more at ease, and called for a bowl of punch. Excited a little by the generous beverage, Barbemuche became more communicative, and, after giving some autobiographical details, made bold to express the hope he had conceived of being personally admitted a member of the Bohemian Club, for the accomplishment of which ambitious design he solicited the aid of Colline. Colline replied that, for his part, he was entirely at the service of Barbemuche, but, nevertheless, he could make no positive promise. "I assure you of my vote," said he. "But I cannot take it upon me to dispose of those of my comrades." "But," asked Barbemuche, "for what reasons could they refuse to admit me among them?" Colline put down the glass which he was just lifting to his mouth, and, in a very serious tone, addressed the rash Carolus, saying, "You cultivate the fine arts?" "I labor humble in those noble fields of intelligence," replied the other, who felt bound to hang out the colors of his style. Colline found the phrase well turned, and bowed in acknowledgment. "You understand music?" he continued. "I have played on the bass-viol." "A very philosophical instrument. Then, if you understand music, you also understand that one cannot, without violation of the laws of harmony, introduce a fifth performer into a quartet; it would cease to be a quartet." "Exactly, and become a quintet." "A quintet, very well, now attend to me. You understand astronomy?" "A little, I'm a bachelor of arts." "There is a little song about that," said Colline. "'Dear bachelor, says Lisette'--I have forgotten the tune. Well then, you know that there are four cardinal points. Now suppose there were to turn up a fifth cardinal point, all the harmony of nature would be upset. What they call a cataclysm--you understand?"