They all hated or liked one another according to circumstances.
This Bohemian resort, to which celebrity was the only ticket of admission, was a Hades of the mind, the galleys of the intellect.

No one could enter there without having legally conquered fortune, done ten years of misery, strangled two or three passions, acquired some celebrity, either by books or waistcoats, by dramas or fine equipages; plots were hatched there, means of making fortune scrutinized, all things were discussed and weighed.

But every man, on leaving it, resumed the livery of his own opinions; there he could, without compromising himself, criticise his own party, admit the knowledge and good play of his adversaries, formulate thoughts that no one admits thinking,--in short, say all, as if ready to do all.

Paris is the only place in the world where such eclectic houses exist; where all tastes, all vices, all opinions are received under decent guise.

Therefore it is not yet certain that Florine will remain to the end of her career a second-class actress.
Florine's life was by no means an idle one, or a life to be envied.