Marriage was, in fact, the only eccentricity Sarah had not yet perpetrated, but she was now enabled to make up for lost time with the kind assistance of M. Damala, an actor by choice, but formerly an _attaché_ in the Greek diplomatic service. The newly-married couple began the first quarter of their honeymoon by immediately taking the train for Marseilles, whence they started by special steamer on April 5th for Spain, to continue the tour. They returned to Marseilles on May 5th, and performed at Grenoble, Geneva, Rouen, and Brussels. On the 26th, a benefit performance was given at Paris for the widow of M. Chéret, and Sarah Bernhardt and her husband played _La Dame aux Camélias_ for the first time in the French capital. The performance, a triumphal success, brought in 59,051 francs (£2362). [Illustration: As Léa.] Her wanderings soon began again. London, Brighton, Blackpool, Manchester, and Scotland saw the wonderful artiste. In the meantime it was announced that she had made arrangements for a four months’ tour in America, and that she and her husband were to be paid £40,000 for fifty performances. Then it became known that after so many wanderings Sarah was to return to Paris and appear in a new play, _Fédora_, by M. Sardou, at the Vaudeville. She had been promised £40 a night for a minimum of a hundred performances. The _première_ on December, 12, 1882, met, with considerable success, but while the perfomances were proceeding the financial difficulties with which the artiste had long been struggling were revealed to the public. She had spent money very freely, and omitted to balance her income and expenditure. She carried out all sorts of wild schemes, such as that of buying the Ambigu theatre for her son Maurice, then seventeen years of age. The affair turned out a very expensive one, and in February 1883, big placards posted on the walls of Paris announced that Mme. Sarah Bernhardt-Damala’s diamonds and jewellery were to be sold by auction on the 8th, 9th, and 10th, at the Hôtel des Ventes. The announcement created a great sensation, much to the vendor’s advantage, the sale producing no less than £7128. Actresses such as Mme. Marie Magnier, Marthe Devoyo, and Julia de Cléry, well-known _demi-mondaines_, collectors, and boulevardiers, competed for the wonders of Sarah’s jewel-case. The importance of the sale may be estimated by the following lots, and the prices at which they were knocked down-- Very handsome single necklace thickly set with rose £ diamonds and enriched with brilliants 960 Bracelet, 573 pearls in nine rows 321 Bracelet 302 Brooch 150 [Illustration: M. Damala.]