remarks about the weather.

The streets were deserted and silent. Dawn was already illumining
the dark depths of the horizon and the outlines of the houses became
distinct. The gas lamps extended like an endless golden chain with
their links of pale flames diffusing a mist of light upon the dew
covered sidewalks and the gray walls of the houses. The fresh brisk
breeze of a July morning swept down the streets with a strange charm
and tranquility. The houses stood silent, still wrapt in slumber.

Arrived at her hotel Niedzielska kissed Janina with a sudden
friendliness and they parted.

CHAPTER VI

"Will you find it comfortable here?"

"I think so. It is quiet and light. . . . Who lived here before me?"

"Miss Nicolette. She is now at the Warsaw Theater . . . That's a
good omen."

"No, not entirely. They are likely not to engage her. . . ."

"Oh, they'll engage her all right. . . . Miss Zarnecka is clever,"
said Mme. Anna, the daughter of Sowinska into whose home Janina had
just moved.

She was twenty-four years old, neither homely nor pretty with an
indefinite color of hair and eyes, but with a very definite
slenderness and bad temper.

She conducted a dressmaking establishment under the name of Mme.
Anna and although she made her living on actresses and very often
received free tickets to the theater, she never went there and hated
artists. There were often scenes over this with her mother, but old
Sowinska, would not so much as listen to any suggestion that she
should abandon the theater. She had become so deeply rooted there
that she could not tear herself away, although Mme. Anna would turn
almost yellow from shame over the fact that her mother was a
theatrical seamstress. She was disgustingly stingy, ignorant,
pitiless, and jealous.

Mme. Anna examined Janina's wardrobe with ill-concealed malice.

"All that will have to be made over, for it smells of the country,"
she decreed.

Janina began to protest a little, maintaining that the same styles
could often be seen in the streets.

"Yes, but who wears them, please take notice of that: shop women or
shoemakers' wives; a self-respecting woman will not wear such rags!"
Mme. Anna scornfully persisted.

"Well then, have them made over. I can pay you immediately for the
work and also a full month's rent in advance."

"Oh, there's no hurry. You'll need to buy a few costumes."

"I'll have enough left for that."

Janina paid thirty rubles for her