with her and Mlle. Frahender. Esperance adored Racine and refused to
study Corneille, before whom Genevieve bowed in enthusiastic
admiration.

"He is superhuman," she exclaimed, fervently.

"That is just what I reproach him for," returned Esperance. "Racine is
human, that is why I love him. None of Corneille's heroines move me at
all, and I loathe the sorrows of '_Phaedre_.'"

"And '_Chimene_'?" asked Genevieve Hardouin.

"'_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