[21] It was on the occasion of the first night of this play that she says she reverted to a trick of her childhood. Once when she had been fed something disagreeable, Sarah deliberately drank off a bottle of ink in the hope that she would die and vex her mother. Now when Perrin refused her a month’s needed holiday and forced her to play Zaïre in midsummer: “I was determined to faint, determined to vomit blood, determined to die, in order to enrage Perrin. Although the rôle was easy, it required two or three shrieks which might have provoked the vomiting of blood that frequently troubled me at that time. I uttered my shrieks with real rage and suffering, hoping to break something. But my surprise was great when the curtain fell at the end of the piece, and I got up quickly to answer to the call and salute the public without languor, without fainting, ready to recommence the piece. I had commenced the performance in such a state of weakness that it was easy to predict that I should not finish the first act without fainting. And I marked this performance with a little white stone--for that day I learned that my vital force was at the service of my intellect.” This is a significant passage. It helps to explain the wonder of Bernhardt’s unexampled vitality in the face of hard work and a frail physique. [22] She remained at the _Comédie_ this time eight years, 1872–1880. Her first appearances were: Gabrielle in _Mlle. de Belle-Isle_, Junie in _Britannicus_, 1872; Chérubin in _Le Mariage de Figaro_, Léonora in _Dalila_, Mrs. Douglas in _L’Absent_, Marthe in _Chez l’Avocat_, _Andromaque_, Aricie in _Phèdre_, 1873; _Peril en la Demeure_, Berthe de Savigny in _Le Sphinx_, _La Belle Paule_, _Zaïre_, Phèdre in _Phèdre_, 1874; Berthe in _La Fille de Roland_, _Gabrielle_, 1875; Mrs. Clarkson in _L’Etrangère_, Posthumia in _Rome Vaincue_, 1876; Doña Sol in _Hernani_, 1877; Desdemona in Aicard’s _Othello_ (once only), Alcmène in _Amphitrion_, 1878; Monime in _Mithridate_, 1879; Clorinde in _L’Aventurtière_, 1880. [23] For many years her tomb in Père Lachaise has been awaiting her. [24] She published an account of these aerial experiences: _Dans les nuages; Impressions d’une Chaise_. [25] The Associates or _Sociétaires of the Comédie Française_ are sharers in the profits, a custom that has come down from the days of Molière. A member of the company is at first a _pensionnaire_, and serves upon a salary only. After proving his worth he is made _Sociétaire_. He does not at once receive a full share of the profits, however, but must progress from an eighth, fourth and half share to the full rank of _Sociétaire_ _à parte entière_. Bernhardt had been made _Sociétaire_ in 1875. During the year 1879 the share received by the leading actors and actresses of the _Comédie_ varied from 55,000 to 70,000 francs, besides their salaries. Sarah’s share was 62,000 francs.