"Mary! if you tell me to go, there will go with me night and suffering, loneliness and tears . . . Mary! do you not hear me? I . . . It is the voice of the heart that loves you . . . the voice . . ." repeated Wladek, pacing up and down the dressing-room with his role and gesticulating wildly, deaf to all that was going on about him.
"Hey there, Wladek . . . put on the soft pedal. . . . You'll have enough opportunity to roar and groan on the stage until our ears are sore," called someone.
"Gentlemen! haven't you perhaps seen Peter?" inquired an actress, poking her head through the door.
"Gentlemen, see if Peter isn't sitting somewhere under the table," mocked someone.
"Milady . . . Peter went upstairs with a very pretty little dame."
"Murder him, madame! he's unfaithful!"
Such were the remarks, punctuated with laughter, that greeted her.
The actress vanished and from the other side of the stage one could hear her asking everyone, "Have you seen Peter?"
"She will go crazy some day from jealousy over him! . . ." remarked someone.
"A respectable woman!"