"Are we going to play to-day?" she asked.
"We are. There are about a hundred rubles in the treasury."
"Ask them for some money for me."
"What do you think! Do you want me to make a fool of myself?
Moreover, I'm going right home."
Janina glanced at him and said in a quiet, expressionless voice:
"Take me home, for I feel so very miserable."
"I have no time, I must immediately run to my own home, for already they are all waiting for me there."
"Oh, how base you are! How base you are!" she whispered.
Wladek recoiled a few steps, not knowing whether he should smile, or pretend to be offended.
"Are you saying that to me, to me?" he asked. He did not dare to swear, for that girl with her proud face and glance of a lady imposed respect upon him and thrust back into his throat, as it were, the brutalities that he wanted to hurl at her.
"To you!" Janina answered. "You are base! You are the basest person in the world . . . do you hear! . . . the basest!"