CHAPTER VI

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Rachel and some of her fellow-actors -- Rachel's true character -- Her greediness and spitefulness -- Her vanity and her wit -- Her powers of fascination -- The cost of being fascinated by her -- Her manner of levying toll -- Some of her victims, Comte Duchatel and Dr. Veron -- The story of her guitar -- A little transaction between her and M. Fould -- Her supposed charity and generosity -- Ten tickets for a charity concert -- How she made them into twenty -- How she could have made them into a hundred -- Baron Taylor puzzled -- Her manner of giving presents -- Beauvallet's precaution with regard to one of her gifts -- Alexandre Dumas the younger, wiser or perhaps not so wise in his generation -- Rachel as a raconteuse -- The story of her _debut_ at the Gymnase -- What Rachel would have been as an actor instead of an actress -- Her comic genius -- Rachel's mother -- What became of Rachel's money -- Mama Felix as a pawnbroker -- Rachel's trinkets -- Two curious bracelets -- Her first appearance before Nicholas I. -- A dramatic recital in the open air -- Rachel's opinion of the handsomest man in Europe -- Rachel and Samson -- Her obligations to him -- How she repays them -- How she goes to Berryer to be coached in the fable of "The Two Pigeons" -- An anecdote of Berryer -- Rachel's fear of a "warm reception" on the first night of "Adrienne Lecouvreur" -- How she averts the danger -- Samson as a man and as an actor -- Petticoat-revolts at the Comedie-Francaise -- Samson and Regnier as buffers -- Their different ways of pouring oil upon the troubled waters -- Mdlle. Sylvanie Plessy -- A parallel between her and Sarah Bernhardt -- Samson and Regnier's pride in their profession -- The different character of that pride -- "Apollo with a bad tailor, and who dresses without a looking-glass" -- Samson gives a lesson in declamation to a procureur-imperial -- The secret of Regnier's greatness as an actor -- A lesson at the Conservatoire -- Regnier on "make-up" -- Regnier's opinion of genius on the stage -- A mot of Augustine Brohan -- Giovanni, the wigmaker of the Comedie-Francaise -- His pride in his profession -- M. Ancessy, the musical director, and his three wigs 128

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