Page:Rachel (1887 Nina H. Kennard).djvu/118

 Français and it was rejected. The poet was in despair, when Rachel took him on one side. "I know an Englishman who has a mania for unpublished manuscripts," she said to him, "will you let me have yours for a thousand francs?" The poet gladly consented; the actress gave him the money and kept him to dinner. A week later the MS. was magnificently bound and placed in her private library.

The authenticity of the following occurrence is vouched for by the Marquis de Gondrexante:—

In the month of August 1849, Mademoiselle Rachel was travelling through Brittany and Normandy, going to Caen; she stopped for a few hours at Saint Denis-le-Guast. She there remarked a peasant boy of about thirteen years of age reading the life of Arondino. She approached him and asked what he was so interested in.

"Why, is it possible those are the books they give you as prizes? What a pity to waste your time on that. Read Racine and Corneille. You have not got them?"

"No, Mademoiselle."

"What is your name?"

"Armand le Brun."

"There, go and buy some books," and she insisted on his taking two louis. "As to Corneille and Racine, I will send them to you."

Three months passed. The peasant boy no longer counted on the promise of the great lady, when he received one morning two volumes beautifully bound, his name on the cover in gilt letters, and on the first page was written, "Donné à Armand le Brun, à qui je souhaite un bel avenir, ."

The tragedian loved gambling, and whenever she