"Very coquettish, rather ambitious, but without any pretensions to spelling.
"Oh! those delightful suppers in the Quartier Latin!
"A perpetual alternative between a blue brougham and an omnibus; between the Rue Breda and the Quartier Latin.
"…Well! what of that? From time to time I feel the need of breathing the atmosphere of such a life as this. My madcap existence is like a song; each of my love-episodes forms a verse of it, but Marcel is its refrain!"
ACT II
IN THE LATIN QUARTER
CHRISTMAS EVE
A conflux of streets; where they meet, a square, flanked by shops of all sorts; on one side the Café Momus.
Aloof from the crowd, RUDOLPH and MIMI; COLLINE is near a rag-shop, SCHAUNARD stands outside a tinker's, buying a pipe and a horn, MARCEL is being hustled hither and thither.
A vast, motley crowd; soldiers, serving maids, boys, girls, children, students, work girls, gendarmes, etc. It is evening. The shops are decked with tiny lamps; a huge lantern lights up the entrance to the Café Momus. The café is so crowded that some of the customers are obliged to seat themselves outside.