g from the theater stood amazed and cried out
enthusiastically: "A splendid scene! . . . John you are a
master-decorator!"

"Heavens! . . . it's as beautiful as in a comedy!" added the nurse,
crossing the salon on tiptoe.

The second and larger room which ordinarily served the purpose of a
store room, crammed with scenic odds and ends, had now been
transformed into a dining room and dazzled with its restaurant-like
splendor: the whiteness of its table covers, its polished trays, its
bouquets of flowers, its mass of burnished dishes, and its
formality.

Cabinska hardly had time to dress herself in a stately lily-colored
gown in which her faded complexion, ruined by cosmetics, took on a
youthful expression and freshness, when the company began thronging
in. The ladies retired to Cabinska's room adjoining the boudoir,
while the gentlemen left their street attire in the kitchen divided
in two by a French wall painted in the style of Louis XV, which had
been brought from the stage.

Wicek, in theatrical livery that consisted of boots with yellow,
cardboard tops, a blue spencer a few sizes too big for him, decked
with red cord and a mass of gold buttons, helped the actors to lay
aside their wraps with a grave and stiff mien, like a real groom
from an English comedy; but his roguish disposition could not long
endure the mood.

"What a monkey the director has made of me, eh? My own mother
wouldn't know me in these duds. No doubt I'll have to pay for it all
by going without supper or absolution!" he whispered, smiling.

The ladies all in gala array, rouged and charming, began to fill the
room with a stiff and icy atmosphere, sitting about immovable and
shy.

Janina arrived rather late, for she had a long distance to come from
her hotel, and wished to dress carefully. She greeted everyone, and
her eyes wandered with a look of surprise over the room, struck by
the tone of solemnity that reigned over all. Dressed in a
cream-colored silk gown shading off into heliotrope, with gentians
in her hair and corsage, tall and lithe, with her rosy complexion
and reddish-golden hair, she looked very original and beautiful. She
possessed a great deal of grace and natural distinction, and moved
about with ease, as though accustomed to the atmosphere of the
salon, while the rest of the company felt unnatural and constrained
by the theatrical elegance of their surroundings. They walked about,
conversed and smiled, as though they were o