And the throng of familiar faces continued to grow. There appeared the priest from Bukowiec, the teachers of her boarding school, her former companions and Grzesikiewicz. All, all passed by her hastily and stared at her with such a dreadful, horrible smile that it pierced her like a dagger and scourged her like a whip.
Janina awoke with tear-streaming eyes and utterly exhausted.
Before the rehearsal Wladek came to see her. For the first time she threw herself into his arms of her own accord.
"They all know!" she whispered, hiding her face upon his breast.
Wladek immediately surmised what she meant and answered: "Well, what of it? Is it a crime?"
He sat down in an ill humor, began to rub his knee and tossed about angrily in his chair.
Janina noticed his mood and, forgetting about herself, inquired:
"What is the matter with you? Are you ill?"
"There is nothing the matter with me, only I owe someone a few rubles and am unable to pay them back. I can't ask my mother for the money, for she is sick again and it would only finish her! Cabinski will not give it to me either, and I am at my wit's end!"
He was, of course, lying, for he had been playing cards the whole night long and had lost all he had. Janina remembered the help she had received from Glogowski, so without hesitation she took off her gold watch and chain and laid it before Wladek.
"I have no money. Take this and pawn it and pay your debt and what you have left over bring me back, for I also have nothing," she said heartily.