rself together, ha! ha!" she laughed with an almost
hostile expression. "Those men are such simps that they believe
everything they see. . . . She buys everything for herself and I
can't even beg money for a parasol from her."

"Sophie, who ever heard of speaking that way about one's mother!"
Majkowska reproved her.

"Oh slush! a mother isn't anything so great! In about four years I
can become a mother myself, a few times, if I want to; but I'm not
so foolish as all that . . . no kids for mine, not on your life! I'd
have to be some fool!"

"You are a nasty and silly kid! I'm going to tell your mother
immediately . . ." indignantly whispered Majkowska, walking away.

"She's a silly fool herself, even though she is an actress of
standing." Sophie hurled after her, pouting her lips spitefully.

"Stop that! You're preventing me from hearing what is being said on
the stage."

"You won't lose much, Miss Janina! The old woman has a voice like a
cracked pot," continued Sophie unabashed.

Janina made an impatient motion.

"And if you only knew how she lies to me! At Lublin there came to
our house a certain gentleman named Kulasiewicz, whom I called
'Kulas' for he never even brought me any candy. She spanked me for
it and told me that he was my father. . . . Ha! ha! ha! I know what
kind of 'fathers' they are. . . . At Lublin, there was Kulas, at
Lodz, Kaminski and now, she has two of them. . . . She tries to hide
the fact, and thinks that I envy her. I'd have to be some fool for
that! Such penniless jiggers you can pick up anywhere by the
bushel . . ."

"Stop that, Sophie, you are a wicked girl!" whispered Janina,
boiling with indignation at the cynicism of that actor's child.

"What's wrong in what I say? Isn't it true?" she answered with a
wonderful accent of true innocence.

"You ask me what's wrong! Where will you find another child who says
such horrid things about her mother?"

"Well, why is she such a fool? All of the other actresses have
lovers who at least have money, while she . . . look at what she's
got! I also would be better off if she were wiser. . . . Believe me,
when I grow up, I'll not be such a fool as she! . . ."

Janina staggered back, staring at her in amazement, but Sophie did
not understand that and, bending more closely over her, whispered
significantly: "Have you already got someone, Miss Janina?"

She hurried away immediately, for the curtain had already descended
and her dance was to