"You are as crazy as your mother was. Wait! Andrew will muzzle you and show you how such women are ruled. He will not spare the whip."
Janina violently shoved aside her chair, threw her spoon on the table, and left the room, slamming the door after her.
"Don't sit there gaping, but order the cutlets served for me," he shouted at Mrs. Krenska, who gazed after Janina with a sympathetic look.
She handed him the dish with a servile mien, whispering to him with a solicitous tone in her voice, "Mr. Director, you must not irritate yourself so, it is not good for your health."
"Such is my fate!" he drawled. "I can't even eat in peace, without having to listen to these everlasting squabbles."
He then began to air at length his grievances and complaints over Janina's stubbornness, her wilful character, and his continual troubles with her.
Mrs. Krenska obsequiously pretended to agree with him, and occasionally emphasized some detail. She complained discreetly that she also had to bear a great deal because of Janina, sighed deeply, and wheedled him at every opportunity. She brought in the coffee and arrack and poured it for him herself. While doing so she fawned upon him, touched his hands and arms, as though accidentally, lowered her eyes, and kept up a continual flirtation, trying to awaken some spark in him.
Orlowski's anger slowly abated, and having drunk his coffee, he ejaculated, "Thank you! I swear to God that you alone understand me. . . . You are a kind woman, Mrs. Krenska."
"Mr. Director, if I could only show you what I feel, what—" she faltered, dropping her eyes.
Orlowski pressed her hand and went to his own room for a nap.