quatrième fille." She tells him the courage it gives her to work with him:
My dear Professor,
Only three hours ago the curtain rose, and cries of "Silence!" were heard, to listen to Racine's verses, and at the same time your pupil. They gave Mithridate, and my success, if I dare say so, was complete. I did my best to remember your lessons, above all those you gave me at Saint Germain.
"The day before the performance of Mithridate," M. Samson tells us, "we made an expedition to the forest of Saint Germain, my wife, my children and myself, and there she had read over the rôle of Monime with me." This letter shows the nervousness Rachel experienced whenever she acted a new rôle:—
Dear Samson,
You allowed me to send you two stalls. Poor Rachel's intentions, perhaps, may be weak to-night, but her emotions will be strong in her rôle of Fatima. I feel half dead with terror. May Providence support me and satisfy your expectations.
To Madame Toussaint, Samson's daughter, she writes:—
Your father was pleased, then, with my little crown? If I were not afraid of making him angry, I would send him all of them, for they are his. Ah! why doesn't all France know M. Samson as I know him? They would adore him.
Then come two letters, written when she was studying Phèdre:—
I would like to go over my rôle of Hermione with you. I went to supper yesterday evening at M. Buloz'; I came home late, and my maid has only this instant wakened me. I am afraid it is too late for you, but thought I would let you know I have studied Phèdre a great deal. I will go to-morrow to ask you the result of my profound meditations.
