l try it to-morrow."

"Ask her for the role of 'Mary' in Doctor Robin which we are to
present next week. Some amateur wishes to join our company and he is
to make his debut as 'Garrick.'"

"What sort of role is that of 'Mary?'"

"A splendid display role! I think that you would act it superbly. I
can bring you the play, if you wish."

"Good! we can read it together."

On the morrow Janina received a solemn promise from Cabinska that
she would be given the part.

In the afternoon Wladek brought Doctor Robin. This was his first
visit to Janina's home, so he took care to appear particularly
handsome, elegant, polite, and somewhat absent-minded. He acted love
and respect for Janina with the skill of a virtuoso; he was very
quiet, as though from an excess of happiness.

"For the first time I feel shy and happy!" he said, kissing Janina's
hand.

"Why shy? You are always so sure of yourself on the stage!" she
answered, a bit confused.

"Yes, on the stage, where one only plays happiness, but not
here . . . where I am really happy."

"Happy?" she repeated.

Wladek glanced at Janina with such passionate intensity, with such
mastery of facial expression, accentuated by a rapturous smile,
simulating the ecstasy and transport of love, that had he shown this
on the stage he would have been warmly applauded. Janina understood
him excellently and something stirred in her as though some new
string in her heart had been lightly plucked.

Wladek began to read the play. With each of "Mary's" words, Janina's
enthusiastic nature burst forth anew. With bated breath, and eyes
fixed on Wladek, she listened, not daring to mar, either by word or
gesture, the impression that his reading made on her. She feared to
dispel the charm that spoke through his eloquent voice and in the
velvety softness of his black eyes.

When he had finished reading, the girl cried out in rapture: "What a
splendid role!"

"I am willing to wager that you will make a furore in it," remarked
Wladek.

"Yes . . . I feel that I could play it fairly well. 'Garrick, that
creator of souls, so mighty in Coriolanus!'" she whispered,
repeating a remembered line of the play.

And Janina's face glowed with such fervor, so radiant did she become
with her deep inner joy, that Wladek scarcely recognized her.

"You are an enthusiast," he said.

"Yes, because I love art! Give all for art and everything is
contained in art! . . . that is my motto. Beyond art I see a