Page:Rachel (1887 Nina H. Kennard).djvu/49

 disturbed the harmony of every meeting of the Committee.

The upholders of Rachel declared that she had saved the Théâtre Français from irretrievable ruin; from an average of six or seven hundred francs she had raised the receipts to six thousand, and had given back to the French stage the masterpieces of the classical drama. The net receipts for the month of October had amounted to one hundred thousand francs; the increase in the profits of the theatre had risen from sixty-five to seventy thousand francs. Though a large portion of the harvest thus made went into the pockets of the sociétaires; the latter were not the less disposed to find fault with the management, whom they accused of sacrificing the future prospects of the theatre to a momentary fancy on the part of the public. They urged that they would have to pay the price of the prosperity Rachel brought them; that she and her parents would soon put forward the most enormous claims; that the present large profits only meant ruin in the future; and that the precedent of thus exalting one member of the company would be disastrous in its results. Events soon proved the correctness of their plea.

Finding that Rachel's name invariably meant a house worth six thousand francs, the management felt it was impossible to leave the young girl's salary at four thousand francs, the sum originally agreed upon, and at the end of the month of October, before she asked for an increase, the sum was doubled, and a few weeks later a monthly gratification added, which gave her an income of twenty thousand francs a year.

This was more than had ever been paid to any actress before. The large salaries now given were