he next ran into Stanislawski and Krzykiewicz who
told him the same with the addition that they would not remain a day
longer with him for they were ashamed to be in a company where such
public scandals occurred.

The director almost went crazy, for he was not prepared for such a
thing. He tried to squirm out of it as best as he could, made
promises, gave orders on the treasurer to all who wanted them and,
spying Janina called aloud to her with the object of mollifying
somewhat his previous conduct: "If you want something from the
treasurer, I will give you an order, for I must leave right away."

Janina asked for five rubles. He did not even so much as make a wry
face but gave it to her and immediately ran off to Pepa, but on the
way he was again tackled by that amateur and his cousin and things
began to grow so noisy behind the scenes that the public listened
uneasily, wondering what was the matter.

The performance was concluded amid the silence of the audience; not
one handclap sounded.

Janina, on leaving the box office with the money, met Niedzielska
hobbling slowly along.

She stopped and wanted to greet her, but Niedzielska looked at her
threateningly and barked: "What do you want, you! you!" She coughed
violently, threatened Janina with her cane with which she supported
herself, and dragged herself on.

Janina unconsciously looked about her, to see if she could spy
Wladek anywhere, but he had already vanished. She had not seen him
since that morning.

Wladek purposely avoided her, for he had reached the decisive
conclusion that it was better to have intercourse only with ordinary
women, for with them it was not necessary to restrain one's self, to
pretend, and to be continually forced to take everything into
account. Moreover, Janina had made a fiasco as an actress and
continued to be nothing but a chorus girl, and his mother had
threatened to disinherit him because of her.

Janina gazed for a long time after the old woman, who, no doubt, was
going to seek her son, and then she went slowly home.

CHAPTER X

Janina lay sick in bed.

It seemed to her as though she were at the bottom of a well and,
from those depths into which they had shoved her she could see only
the pale, distant blue of the sky, sometimes complete darkness,
sometimes the twinkling of the stars, then again some wings, flying
past, would cast a shadow over her eyes so that she lost knowledge
of everything. She only felt that