her return, Legouvé wrote to her to Warsaw, and her answer was equivalent to a refusal.
She told him she had sent in her resignation to the Théâtre Français (which she had not done), and that, therefore, as she had only six months to act there, she did not see her way to creating a new part. Legouvé's answer was a lawyer's letter, which she received the day after her return. Poor Rachel! other thoughts filled her heart and brain. Her sister Rebecca was dying of consumption in the South of France, and she had received an imperative call to her bedside. She still held out to the unfortunate author a hope of acting Medea; but, crushed to the earth as she was with sorrow, she could not face the idea of attempting a new rôle. If Rebecca were saved, then, she declared, as a thanksgiving offering she would devote nights and days to the proper representation of the piece:—
I wish with all my heart I had been able to study Medea during the six weeks I passed by the bedside of my poor sister! I am most anxious to reappear at the Théâtre Français on the 30th May, but have not even been able to go over Phèdre. The very thought of fulfilling my engagements at the theatre frightens me. I remain shut up at home, my grief continually revived by thinking and speaking of poor Rebecca. All my trust is in God, dear friend. If He spare us this dear child, be sure that I will soon make up for lost time, and not rest until your piece is put upon the stage.
The impression produced on the excitable temperament of the young actress by the death of her sister was overwhelming. On her return from Russia she had hastened to Eaux Bonnes, in the Pyrenees, to visit the dying girl. As soon as her congé expired she was obliged to resume her duties at the Théâtre Français. She continued, however, her watchful care of her sister, and, while acting continuously, managed to perform the journey to and fro thrice in as many
