Shortly before his death, Damala was given a part by Sarah in the play Lena, at the Théâtre des Variétés. During the second performance he was so drunk that he could not say a word.
A few weeks later he died. Sarah was with him until the last. This was in 1889.
CHAPTER XXVII
Except that those seven fearful years left their inevitable traces upon her appearance and mind, Sarah’s imprudent marriage had wonderfully little effect upon her after life.
Moreover, she never renounced the name of Damala, which remained her legal name until she died, though few people knew it.
During the war the fact that she was legally a Greek caused her much annoyance, and once when there was a danger that King Constantine might throw his country into the war on the side of the Germans, she saw herself actually refused a visa to her passport by an officious nobody in a consular office at Bordeaux.
“But I am Sarah Bernhardt, sir!” she exclaimed.
“My orders are not to grant visas to Greeks,” said the official stolidly. “This passport is a Greek one and I will not endorse it.”
It required a special telegram from the Minister of the Interior himself before the obstinate clerk could be persuaded to change his mind.