"I will say something more . . ." said Glogowski when they were already walking down the shaded paths on their way back, "I will repeat what I said on the day that I first met you at Bielany; let us be friends! . . . It's no use trying to deny it, man is a gregarious beast: he always needs someone near him so that his lot on this earth may be half-way bearable . . . Man does not stand alone; he must lean against and link up with others, go together with them and feel together with them to be able to accomplish anything. To be sure, one kindred soul suffices. Let us be friends!" "All right," said Janina, "but I will lay down one condition." "Quick, for God's sake! For perhaps I will not accept it!" "It is this: give me your word of honor that you will never, never speak to me about love, and that you will not fall in love with me. You can even confide in me, if you wish, all your love affairs and disappointments." "Agreed, all along the line! I seal that with my solemn word of honor!" cried Glogowski. They gravely pressed each others' hands. "This is a union of pure souls with ideal aims!" he laughed, winking his eyes. "Something makes me feel so merry now that I could take my own head in my hands and kiss it heartily." "It is a premonition of the triumph of your Churls." "Don't remind me of that. I know what awaits me. But I must now bid farewell to you." "Aren't you going to escort me home?" "No . . . Oh well, all right, but I warn you I will talk to you about . . . love!" he cried gayly. "Well, in that case, good-by! May God preserve you from such falsehoods." "Your ears must have surfeited on that rubbish, if the very mention of it nauseates you. . . ." "Go now if you wish . . . I will tell you about it some other time. . . ." Glogowski leaped into a hack and drove away in haste toward Comely Street and Janina went home. She tried on the peasant costume which Mme. Anna was making for her appearance and thought with a smile of the alliance that she had formed with Glogowski. At the theater it was evident that a premiere was to be given. All the members of the company appeared earlier, dressed and made up more carefully than usual and only Krzykiewicz, as was his custom, paraded about the dressing-room and the stage half-dressed with his rouge pot in his hand. Stanislawski, who when he played, usually came about two hours before the performance, was already dressed and only now and then added an extra touch to his make-up. Wawrzecki, with his role in his hand paced up and down the dressing-room rehearsing in an undertone. The stage-director ran about more swiftly than usual and in the ladies' dressing-room livelier quarrels were going on. Everyone was more nervous to-day. The prompter supervised the stage arrangements and watched the public that was beginning to fill the hall. The chorus girls, who were to act as supers, were already dressed in their peasant costumes and straggled all about the stage.