d in tormenting Janina in this manner, and
avenged herself in this way for the loss of her son's love.

At last it was announced that stage rehearsals of Doctor Robin were
to begin. Wladek brought this information to Janina, because for a
few days she had been very weak and had not left her home at all.
She felt an oppressive drowsiness and exhaustion and an unbearable
pain in her back. Then again such a feeling of helplessness and
discouragement would possess her that she wanted to cry and had no
desire to stir from her bed, but lay for whole days, gazing blankly
at the ceiling. The humming sensation in her head returned and she
suffered such a burning thirst that nothing could quench it.
However, on hearing that she was to take part in the play, Janina
immediately felt well and strong again.

She went to the rehearsal, trembling with fear, but on seeing the
person who was to play "Garrick," she quickly mastered herself. This
amateur was hardly more than a boy, skinny, awkward, and
simple-minded. He lisped and waddled about like a duck, but since he
was the cousin of one of the influential journalists who backed him,
he regarded everybody at the theater with a haughty expression and
treated them with an air of condescension. The members of the
company delicately ridiculed him to his face and laughed loudly at
him behind his back.

Everybody was present at the rehearsal, as though they had all
agreed upon it beforehand.

No sooner did Janina enter upon the stage than Majkowska
ostentatiously withdrew behind the scenes, while Topolski did not so
much as nod his head to her in greeting. Janina realized that
relations with them were severed for good, but she had no time to
think about it, for the rehearsal began immediately. Despite the
fact that she had at first intended merely to recite her role,
Janina could not now refrain from marking it, at least in its broad
outlines.

She was irritated by the fact that everyone was looking at her and
that from all directions numerous eyes were fixed upon her. It
seemed to her that she saw ridicule in their glances and derision on
all those lips, so at moments she would start nervously and break
out with all the force of her temperament, or again, she would speak
too softly.

Majkowska stood there hissing and laughing together with Zarnecka
and loudly voicing her opinion of Janina's acting. Topolski, the
stage-manager, made her leave and reenter the stage several times,
fo