"Of course if we had the five children too, it would lend some color to the story. After all, how could we have had them all if we weren't married? --Hey!" He rescues Joly from under the pillow and goes back to playing with his hair. "Mm, Feuilly's was something green, something you never quite expected it to be..."

Yes, he's thinking of Musichetta too. He doesn't think she had--was--a bird. Something soft and sleek; but that brings him back to his dream a little too vividly, and he laughs at himself under his breath. "1830, though. 1830, but we were all of us coming and going from here. I wonder..."

How did that turn out?