Mademoiselle Rachel made a graceful curtsey, and answered with downcast eyes, "Monseigneur, je crois!"
Nothing was talked of next day but the renunciation of the faith of her fathers which it was averred the young Jewess had made.
Madame Lenormand, in her Mémoires de Madame Recamier, describes Rachel as she was at this time:—
Whoever had not heard and seen Mademoiselle Rachel in a drawing-room can only form an incomplete idea of her feminine attractions, and of her talent as an actress. Her features, a little too delicate for the stage, gained much by being seen nearer. Her voice was a little hard, but her accent was enchanting, and she modulated it to suit the limits of a room with marvellous instinct. Her deportment was in irreproachable taste; and the ease and promptitude with which this young girl, without education or knowledge of good society, seized its manner and tone, was certainly the perfection of art. Deferential with dignity, modest, natural, and easy, she talked delightfully of her art and her studies. Her success in society was immense.
Rachel's private life at this time was in strange contrast to the brilliancy of her success. The Félix family were living at No. 27, Rue Traversière Saint Honoré, since named Rue de la Fontaine Molière. Nothing could be imagined more sordid than all the surroundings. A dining-room containing a table and a few chairs; the bed-room of the father and mother; and a kitchen, the superintendence of which fell to Rachel's share, she being the one who had always undertaken the cooking of the establishment. From the kitchen a steep staircase led to an attic in which were three small beds. In one of these slept Rebecca and Lia, in the other Raphäel, and in the third Rachel with her youngest sister Dinah, then three years old. When not employed in the preparation of the family meals, or in the education of her sister, the young girl spent
