so splendidly!" sneered Glogowski.

"What do you want? He's a good actor and not at all a bad comedian."

"Yes, because he always knows how to improvise some nonsense with
which to cover up his bungling."

"Please give me an entirely serious answer. Were those last words of
yours only a joke or were they an expression of your wishes and a
condition?" Kotlicki again whispered to Janina as a certain idea
entered into his head.

"Every variety is good, providing it is not wearisome. Have you
heard that before?" answered Janina impatiently.

"Thank you! I will remember it. . . . But do you know this: patience
is the first condition of success."

Kotlicki glanced at her quizzically, bowed to her with his head, and
retired among the rest of the company. He possessed a brazen
self-confidence and decided, at all events, to wait.

Kotlicki was not one of those whom a woman can drive away from
herself with scorn or even with insults. He accepted everything and
carefully stored it away in his memory for a future reckoning. He
was a man who had a contempt for women, who told people what he
thought to their very faces, and who always craved women and love.
He ignored the fact that he was ugly, for he knew he was rich enough
to buy any woman that he might desire. He belonged to that category
of men which is ready for anything.

He now walked along smiling at some thought that was in his mind,
and striking with his cane the weeds that were in his path.

It grew dark and the rain began to fall in large drops.

"We will get drenched like chickens!" laughed Mimi, opening her
parasol.

"Miss Janina, my umbrella is at your service," called Glogowski.

"Thank you very much, but as far as I am able, I do not use any
protection against the rain; I just dote on getting wet in the
rain."

"You have the instincts of . . ." he broke off suddenly and pressed
his hand to his mouth with a comical gesture.

"Finish what you began to say . . . please do . . ."

"You have the instincts of fish and geese. . . . I am curious to
know how they have developed in you."

Janina smiled, for she remembered her old autumn and winter tramps
through the woods in the greatest storms and rainfalls, and she
answered merrily: "I like such things. I am used from my childhood
to endure rains and rough weather . . . I am simply wild about
storms."

"My, what fiery blood! It must be something atavistic."

"It's merely a habit or an inner need which