before
her eyes with a stately throng of heroic figures, superhuman
passions, and dazzling beauty, a realm in which there reigned a
perfect harmony between dreams and reality.

Janina smiled with pity at those days of want and poverty, as though
she were bidding farewell to them forever. Everything that
surrounded her, even Wladek, paled into insignificance before her
fascinated eyes.

A thousand times she repeated the role of "Mary." She sat for hours
at a time before the mirror, practicing the appropriate facial
expression and became feverish with impatience while awaiting the
arrival of the momentous day. At night, Janina would sit half asleep
in her bed and gaze before her. It seemed to her that she saw the
crowded theater and the representatives of the press, that she heard
the quiet murmurs of the public, saw their enraptured glances, and
that she entered the stage and played. . . . Half unconsciously she
would repeat the words of her role, kindle with ardor, declaim them
with exaltation. Then, overcome by drowsiness again, she would smile
through tears of happiness for she heard most distinctly that
well-known and thrilling thunder of applause and cries of:
"Orlowska! Orlowska!" And with that smile on her face she would fall
asleep and wake again to continue her dreams.

Janina sold whatever she could to buy the appropriate costume for
her part. With a smile of contentment she would drive away Wladek so
that he might not interfere with her.

On that day which was to be for her so important and decisive,
Cabinski, before the general rehearsal, took away her part and gave
it to Majkowska.

Intrigue and envy had gained their end. Cabinski was forced to
yield, for Topolski had threatened to leave the company immediately
unless he took away the role from Janina and gave it to Majkowska.
It was the way he chose to avenge himself because of Janina's
refusal to go to Kotlicki.

Struck to the very heart, Janina almost lost her reason under this
blow. She began to stagger on her feet and felt that the whole
theater was whirling about her and that everything was sinking with
her into a bottomless darkness. She cast a glance of unspeakable
grief at all those about her, as though seeking for help, but on the
faces of most of the members of the company there was an expression
of merriment over what they thought was a splendid joke, and the
beastly joy of cretins at the suppression of talent. They mocked the
defeated