"It must be admitted that their existence was a veritable 'hell-up-on-earth.'
"Thus (if life it was) did they live; a few happy days alternating with many wretched ones, while perpetually awaiting a divorce."
"Either as a congenital defect or as a natural instinct, Musetta possessed a positive genius for elegance.
"Even in her cradle this strange creature must surely have asked for a mirror.
"Intelligent, shrewd, and above all, hostile to anything that she considered tyranny, she had but one rule—caprice.
"In truth the only man that she really loved was Marcel; perhaps because he alone could make her suffer. Yet extravagance was for her one of the conditions of well-being."
ACT III
_Beyond the toll-gate, the outer boulevard is formed in the background by the Orleans high-road, half hidden by tall houses and the misty gloom of February. To the left is a tavern with a small open space in front of the toll-gate. To the right is the Boulevard d'Enfer; to the left, that of St. Jacques.
On the right also there is the entrance of the Rue d'Enfer, leading to the Quartier Latin.
Over the tavern, as its sign-board, hangs MARCEL's picture, "The Passage of the Red Sea," while underneath, in large letters, is the inscription. "At the Port of Marseilles." On either side of the door are frescoes of a Turk and a Zouave with a huge laurel-wreath round his fez. From the ground-floor windows of the tavern, which faces the toll-gate, light gleams. The plane-trees, grey and gaunt, which flank the toll-gate square, lead diagonally towards the two boulevards. Between each tree is a marble bench. It is towards the close of February; snow covers all.