Page:Rachel (1887 Nina H. Kennard).djvu/148

 This is not one of Rachel's most amusing letters; but we give it because it shows her happy in her work, proud of popularity honestly won, and full of confidence in the affection of those to whom she wrote. In the beginning of July she went on to Lyons, the city where her mother had kept an old-clothes shop, where her younger sister Rebecca was born, and where she and her sister Sarah had wandered about the streets singing, to try and obtain a few coppers from the charity of passers-by. "Cette ville de Lyon que me rapellerappelle [sic] toute mon enfance," as she wrote to her father. Now she was received with acclamations, treated like a queen, surrounded with every luxury that money and affection could procure for her.

That "sensibility" that Talma declared to be one of the principal requisites for a great actor was not—at this time, certainly—absent from Rachel's heart. A story is told of her hearing of a Jewish family that was reduced to the lowest stages of want. Having ascertained all necessary details of the case, she repaired on the following day to the sixth floor of a house in one of the poorest quarters of the town. Here she found a workman, his wife, and six children, without bread, clothes, or shoes. The gift of 300 francs which the visitor had brought for their relief called forth a torrent of blessings and fervent thanks. Not content with this munificent donation, the young actress stopped at a shoemaker's on her way home and ordered eight pairs of shoes to be sent to them.

We must give in its entirety a very interesting letter written by the young tragedian to her brother Raphaël. She places before us plainly enough what she considered the honourable views and aims of a dramatic student. Raphaël, four years older than Rebecca, was born in