uts and
catcalls.

"All right, here is fifty rubles, take them. You are robbing your
own companions, but you don't care a rap about that, for you'll have
something with which to organize your own company. Here, take them,
but that ends all relations between us!"

"Don't worry about my company; I shall reserve the position of a
stage-hand for you."

"Sooner will you check coats in my theater, before I join yours."

"Silence, you clown!"

"I'll call the police and they'll quiet you right away!" shouted the
infuriated Cabinski.

"I'll silence you immediately, you circus performer!" cried
Topolski, who had just finished dressing, and, taking Cabinski by
the collar, he gave him a kick that sent him flying out of the
dressing-room; then he himself went out on the stage.

The performance was concluded peacefully, but a new quarrel started
around the box office. The actors and actresses stood there in a
close group so that only their heads and faces, shining with the
grease used to wash off the paint, were visible in the gaslight.
They were all shouting for money and demanding their overdue
salaries. They shook their fists threateningly at the cashier's
window, their eyes flashed lightning, and their voices were hoarse
from shouting.

Cabinski, still red and trembling from the abuse that had just met
him, quarreled with everybody and swore and wanted to pay only the
usual installments.

"Whoever isn't satisfied with what he gets, let him go to Topolski!
It's all the same to me . . ." he cried.

Janina approached the window and said: "Director, you promised to
pay me to-day."

"I haven't the money!"

"But neither have I," she begged quietly.

"I am not paying the others either, and yet, they do not importune
me as you do."

"Mr. Cabinski, I am almost dying from hunger," she answered
straightforwardly.

"Then go and earn some money. All the others know how to help
themselves. I like naive women, but only on the stage. A comedienne!
Go to Topolski, he will advance you the money."

"Oh, Topolski assuredly won't let the members of his company suffer
poverty. He will pay each what is due him and will not cheat
people!" cried Janina impulsively.

"Then you can go straight to him and don't show up here again!"
shouted Cabinski, driven to fury by the mention of Topolski.

"Listen there, Director!" began Glas, but Janina listened no longer
and, pushing her way through the crowd, left the theater.

"Go and ear