"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 . . ."