Altogether in her eight seasons at the _Vaudeville_, she had played more than a score of parts, some of them genuine successes. Yet she had not won genuine recognition at the hands of the directors, and her position in the company was hardly in accord with her promise and deserts. Sardou and the others responsible for the affairs of the _Vaudeville_ seemed strangely blind to the fact that in Réjane they had a _comédienne_ of the first order. But though she was by her superiors much of the time either kept idle or employed in almost insignificant parts, the rest of Paris speedily knew her for what she was. She was in keen demand for all the special, semi-informal performances that make up so large a part of the artistic life of the normal Paris. The “spectacles” of the _Cercle de la rue Royale_, the _revues_ at the _Epatant_, the dramatic trifles that were the adjuncts of authors’ readings, all found in Réjane a willing and able helper. She took these artistic informalities seriously, rehearsed for them and costumed them with care, and was so particularly well adapted to the work that she became a marked favorite with the very social and artistic circles to which the _Vaudeville_ catered. As the directors, however, continued to give her insignificant parts, it is not strange that she listened to those friends, like Pierre Berton, who urged her to shake the dust of _Vaudeville_ from her feet. “You are a star,” Berton told her. It happened that a star was the quest just then of M. Bertrand of the _Variétés_ and with him she signed a three years’ contract. This moment may be said to mark the definite arrival of Réjane. She was no longer to cool her heels in the greenroom or at home, and henceforth she was to play, as a rule, principal parts. Moreover, the agreement with the _Variétés_ was elastic enough to allow appearances at other theatres, often in plays of more import than the light material of which the _Variétés_ was the avowed medium. And when she returned, on occasion, to the _Vaudeville_, it was not in minor rôles. Réjane had assumed her due place on the stage of Paris. It had not been a difficult rise. Though it is not possible to overlook the elements of steadfast ambition, patience, and hard work in Réjane’s early career, it is true that her native spirits, her _flair_, and the training and friendship of Regnier made inevitable her right to a prominent place on the stage of Paris. With that place assured, we see her thenceforth steadily enlarging it, progressing from part to part, appearing now in this theatre of Paris and now in that, shortly venturing into the other capitals of Europe, then making a tour--to be later repeated--in America, and finally acquiring a theatre of her own in Paris,--an international figure, a queen of comedy.