Page:Rachel (1887 Nina H. Kennard).djvu/203

191

years before she actually went, the project of a tour in America had been taken into consideration by Rachel. We find her, in 1848, writing from Liège, in one of her moments of depression, to tell her faithful confidante, Sarah, that, energy and lightness of heart having forsaken her for ever, she was possessed with the idea of either retiring to Switzerland and putting her boys into a college at Geneva, or of going to the United States, making a fortune, and finishing her career as a member of the Théâtre Français with a comparatively small salary.

Art and artists had suffered severely during this year of revolution and political excitement. Rachel, by yielding to the exigencies of the moment, succeeded in filling the coffers of the Théâtre Français; but even the "Marseillaise" failed to bring the showers of gold to which the young actress was accustomed. It was certainly flattering to her professional vanity to receive exotic flowers from les enfans de la patrie; but Jacques Bonhomme's pockets were not inexhaustible mines of wealth, and Rachel soon wearied of his enthusiasm and applause. What wonder, then, that the New World on the other side of the Atlantic