"What? Do you mean that seriously?" he cried.
"Of course."
"For you see, I told myself that if this play fails, I shall . . ."
"Will you give up writing?"
"No, but I shall vanish from the horizon for a few months and write another one. I will write a second, a third . . . I will write until I produce a perfectly good one! I must!"
"Tell me, do you think Majkowska will make a good Antka in my play?" he suddenly asked.
"It seems to me that that role is well-suited to her."
"Maurice also will play his part well, but the rest of them are a miserable lot and the staging terrible. It's bound to turn out a fiasco!"
"Mimi knows nothing about the peasants and her imitation of their dialect is ludicrous," remarked Janina.
"I heard her and it pained me to listen! Do you know the peasants? Ah, Great Scott!" he cried impulsively. "Why don't you act that role? . . ."