(_MUSETTA being without her shoe, cannot walk, so MARCEL and COLLINE
carry her through the crowd, as they endeavor to follow the
patrol. The mob, seeing her borne along in this triumphal fashion,
give her a regular ovation. MARCEL and COLLINE with MUSETTA
follow the patrol; RUDOLPH and MIMI follow arm in arm; SCHAUNARD
goes next, blowing his horn; while the students, work-girls,
street-lads, women and towns-folk merrily bring up the rear._)

(_Marching in time with the music, the whole vast crowd gradually
moves off as it follows the patrol. Meanwhile ALCINDORO, with
a pair of shoes carefully wrapped up, returns to the café in search
of MUSETTA. The waiter by the table takes up the bill left by
MUSETTA and ceremoniously hands it to ALCINDORO, who, seeing
the amount, and perceiving that they have all left him there alone,
falls back into a chair, utterly dumbfounded._)




ACT III

"Mimi's voice seemed to go through Rudolph's heart like a death-knell.
His love for her was a jealous, fantastic, weird, hysterical
love. Scores of times they were on the point of separating.

"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