17 May 1868
Marie put her heart into the performance that night because in spite of the complication of having lost her traveling papers—and she suspected she had help in losing them because she knew she’d kept them hidden in a safe place—she intended it to be her last.
It was the closing night of the play as well, which leant a certain energy to the performance. At the end of the play, the audience rose to its feet, stamping and applauding, and she bowed and snatched a rose out of the air on the way up. She held hands with her costar, an older actor named Maurice, who had played the man Marie’s character had fallen in love with and become obsessed with, and bowed again. After five curtain calls, she said goodbye to the rest of the cast and made her way to her dressing room, where her mo
