"'_Chimene_' has no interest for me. She never does as she
wishes."
"How feminine!" said the professor, gently.
"Oh! you may be right, father dear, but grief is one and indivisible.
Her father, cruelly killed by her lover, must kill her love for the
lover, or else she does not love her father: and, that being the case,
she doesn't interest me at all. She is a horrid girl." Tenderly she
embraced her father, who could easily pardon her revolt against
Corneille, because he shared her weakness for Racine.
Several months after Esperance's most encouraging admission to the
Conservatoire, Victorien Sardou wrote a note to Francois Darbois, with
whom he had come to be warm friends, warning him that he was soon
coming to lunch with them, to read his new play to the family.
Esperance was wild with excitement. The time of waiting for the event
seemed interminable to her. Her father tried in vain to calm her with
philosophical reflections. Creature of feeling and impulse that she
was, nothing could control her excitement.
Sardou had also asked Francois Darbois to invite Mlle. Frahender,
whose generous spirit and whose tact and judgment he much esteemed.
The old lady arrived, carrying as usual the little box with the lace
cap which she donned as soon as her bonnet was laid aside. On this
great day the little cap was embellished by a mauve satin ribbon,
contrasting charmingly with the silver of her hair.
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