acted as her personal manager,
was a spendthrift; but if so, there are many reasons for thinking that
it was not his sister's money that he spent. Others say that Rachel
gambled in stocks, but there is no evidence of it. The only thing that
is certain is the fact that she was almost always in want of money. Her
mother, in all probability, managed to get hold of most of her earnings.

Much may have been lost through her caprices. One instance may be
cited. She had received an offer of three hundred thousand francs to
act at St. Petersburg, and was on her way there when she passed through
Potsdam, near Berlin. The King of Prussia was entertaining the Russian
Czar. An invitation was sent to her in the shape of a royal command to
appear before these monarchs and their guests. For some reason or other
Rachel absolutely refused. She would listen to no arguments. She would
go on to St. Petersburg without delay.

"But," it was said to her, "if you refuse to appear before the Czar at
Potsdam all the theaters in St. Petersburg will be closed against you,
because you will have insulted the emperor. In this way you will be out
the expenses of your journey and also the three hundred thousand
francs."

Rachel remained stubborn as before; but in about half an hour she
suddenly declared that she would recite before the two monarchs, which
she subsequently did, to the satisfaction of everybody. Some one said
to her not long after:

"I knew that you would do it. You weren't going to give up the three
hundred thousand francs and all your travelling expenses."

"You are quite wrong," returned Rachel, "though of course you will not
believe me. I did not care at all about the money and was going back to
France. It was something that I heard which made me change my mind. Do
you want to know what it was? Well, after all the arguments were over
some one informed me that the Czar Nicholas was the handsomest man in
Europe; and so I made up my mind that I would stay in Potsdam long
enough to see him."

This brings us to one phase of Rachel's nature which is rather
sinister. She was absolutely hard. She seemed to have no emotions
except those which she exhibited on the stage or the impish perversity
which irritated so many of those about her. She was in reality a
product of the gutter, able to assume a demure and modest air, but
within coarse, vulgar, and careless of decency. Yet the words of Jules
Janin, which have been quoted above, explai