Page:Rachel (1887 Nina H. Kennard).djvu/48

 the two box offices were often broken by the impatient throng outside. One extended on one side far beyond Chevet's shop, the other into the Rue St. Honoré. People waited two and three hours with feverish impatience for the opening of the ticket office, which shut again almost immediately, as most of the places had been previously sold. All this trouble and fatigue stimulated the curiosity of the public, and the same crowd appeared again next day. Her fame permeated not only Paris, but the provinces and abroad, and the receipts when she acted increased in the same ratio. On the evening of the 27th of September the money taken exceeded the previous day by a thousand francs; two days after, they were more than 4,000 francs; a fortnight after, 6,000 francs, and for a long time they were never less than 5,000 francs, and that with nothing but classical plays. She proved that Corneille and Racine could be made to pay. It is, indeed, worthy of remark that during Rachel's engagement at the Français, classical plays were the most lucrative. As the saying was, on tragedy nights the box office clerks at the Théâtre Français wore a comedy expression, and on comedy nights a tragedy one.

After the performance of Monime in Mithridate, Rachel's sixth rôle at the Français, the Committee presented her with its first gift, consisting of all the plays in which she had appeared, each separately and splendidly bound, with her name and the date of her first performanoe in the part, inscribed in golden letters on the back; and soon after they added to this a gold circlet, set with precious stones. This heaping of benefits on one of their number soon aroused the jealousy of the other associates of the theatre, and recrimination and complaints assailed the director and