Page:Rachel (1887 Nina H. Kennard).djvu/95

 hopes of her youth and poverty. She wrote on the 7th June 1814, to her mother:—

Her sister Sarah was Rachel's principal correspondent, and many of the letters quoted in M. Heylli's book, even when not bearing her name, are evidently addressed to her. Though not bound to Sarah by the ties of almost maternal affection she felt for Rebecca, Rachel was deeply and sincerely attached to her. Whenever she was ill, Sarah was the one sent for to nurse her back to health again. Whenever she was in any difficulty or wanted any business done, it was into Sarah's sympathetic ear that she poured all her troubles and difficulties. Sarah's unsensitive and rather vulgar nature was a good conductor to receive the electricity and fire of her passionate sister, and many a storm thus diverted passed off harmlessly, not without hard words on both sides; for Sarah, undaunted by the proud reserve that made Rachel respected and feared in her family, often told her wholesome truths; but every fight ended with kisses and tears.

Being more nearly of an age, the greater part of their youth was passed together. Rachel's first representations for money, singing comic songs in the Parisian