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 In this determination to keep Fifi in seclusion until the night of her reappearance on the stage, Duvernet was backed up by Cartouche, who reminded Fifi of the enormous salary she was receiving of fifty francs the week. He had no inkling of the further rise in her fortunes of forty francs the week from the Holy Father.

Meanwhile rehearsals were actively begun, and Fifi had had the exquisite joy of seeing that Julie Campionet was furiously jealous of her. Duvernet, in spite of his unceremonious behavior to her in private, treated her at rehearsals with a respect fitting the place she held on the programme and the stupendous salary she received. All of her fellow actors were either stand-offish with her or over-friendly, but this, Fifi knew, was only a phase. Cartouche alone treated her as he had always done, and even scolded her sharply, saying that in three months she had forgotten what it had taken her three years to learn. But this was hardly exact, for Fifi, being a natural actress, had forgotten very little and had learned a great deal during her exile from the Imperial Theater.

On the morning after the announcement made in the newspapers about Fifi's gift a great clatter was