On September 4, 1880, we left Paris on our first tour of the provinces under Duquesnel’s managership. The tour, which lasted twenty-eight days, was a tremendous success, and in October, a few days after our return to Paris, Sarah left for America under Abbey’s management. I did not go with her, my family being unwilling that I should make the journey before having completed my studies.
CHAPTER XXII
As I said at the conclusion of the last chapter, I did not accompany Sarah Bernhardt on her first visit to the United States, and I can therefore give no first-hand impressions of the trip. What is more, she told me so much when she returned, and so mixed were her own impressions, that it is hard for me to say now whether she actually enjoyed her visit to the New World or not.
“What a detestable country!” she would say sometimes. “What a marvellous country!” she would exclaim at others. Similar mixed conclusions are often brought back from America by visitors even now.
She adored the scenery, the energy and the extravagance of the Americans, and she thought the American men perfect—all except the reporters. But she hated the American women—and she hated most of them until she died.
“Their voices!” she would exclaim, and shudderingly put both hands to her ears. “Quelle horreur!”
When she opened in New York, one of her most expensive costumes, she told me, was completely ruined by women visiting her in her dressing-room, who insisted on fondling it and exclaiming over its rich embroidery.
During her visit to London, in the June of the year when she first went to America, she met Henry Irving.
“They tell me, madame, that you are going to the United States?” said Irving.