d with her name. He wished by all means to break down her
opposition which he could not understand, but Janina remained
unmoved.

"If my life itself depended on it, I would not go; I would prefer to
die!" said Janina with final determination.

"Well then, good-bye!" answered Topolski angrily.

Janina kept looking at him and still wanted to explain herself more
fully, but Majkowska threw her cloak over her shoulders for her,
brutally placed her hat on her head, and showering her with insults,
opened the door widely before her.

Janina like an automaton, permitted her to do what she wanted with
her and, like an automaton she walked down the stairs and along the
streets to her home.

She felt sorry for the new company and regretted the prospect that
she was losing by breaking with Topolski but at the same time she
felt an unbearable shame consuming her at the thought that these
people should take her for such a degraded being by daring to make
such proposals to her and expecting that she would fulfill them.

Janina could not calm herself. That night she dreamed now of
Kotlicki, now of Wladek, then again of the theater. She heard how
all were cursing and reviling her, she saw as it were, a band of
people covered with rags and with hatred glowing in their eyes,
pursuing her with curses and trying to beat her. In those vaguely
outlined faces she recognized Mela, Topolski, Mimi, and Wawrzecki.
Again, she dreamed that she was walking along the street and that
everybody was staring at her so strangely and so horribly that she
felt like sinking into the earth to avoid their glances; but she had
no strength to move and that multitude slowly filed by her while
Topolski stood pointing at her and crying in a loud and derisive
voice: "Behold! she lived with Glogowski and is now the mistress of
Wladek!"

Janina could not bear that; she screamed wildly in her sleep for she
saw, as it were, her father approaching her with Krenska at his
side, pointing at her and calling: "She lived with Glogowski and now
is the mistress of Wladek!"

"God, oh God!" she moaned, writhing with the torment of that dream.

And the throng of familiar faces continued to grow. There appeared
the priest from Bukowiec, the teachers of her boarding school, her
former companions and Grzesikiewicz. All, all passed by her hastily
and stared at her with such a dreadful, horrible smile that it
pierced her like a dagger and scourged her like a whip.

Janina