Rachel Her Stage Life And Her Real Life

t that danger Rachel was immune. Not, indeed, that she had the temperament of a nun?a great actress never has. But she was ugly, and she was proud; and she had the instinctive perception belonging to genius of the goal for which she was bound, and of the fact that certain roads did not lead to it. The flowery track, she divined, was for the thddtreuse, not for the actress. The path of pleasure was not the way to glory, though the path of glory might be the way to pleasure. Moreover, as she was a plain child, the temptations were probably inconsiderable. She wore a calico frock?it was the only frock she possessed?of a red ground with white spots. Her boots were abominably coarse and clumsy. Her black hair was drawn tight, so that her huge forehead bulged, and hung, twisted into meagre pigtails, down her back. She hoped, with a longing like despair, that she would grow up to be beautiful; and she wondered what she could do to" make herself look like one of the Greek statues in the Louvre galleries. In the meantime, however, she did not look in the least like any of them, but was a puny freak with a voice like a big bassoon. She was intelligent, however, and she could act; and Saint-Aulaire was a teacher who found his pupils opportunities of showing what they could do. They gave public performances under his direction in the Salle Moliere, paying him fees for the privilege of appearing?from one to ten francs according to the importance of the part?and recoup...