"Oh, Counselor, Counselor! if I did not love my John so much, I would . . ." she cried, overjoyed at regaining her bracelet without any obligations. She squeezed his hands so heartily and beamed upon him with her joyous gaze so closely, that he felt her breath upon his cheeks. He gently pushed her aside, biting his lips. "Ah, Counselor, you are an ideal man!" "Oh, let us drop that! . . . You can invite me to be a godfather to your next child." "Oh, you're a rogue, Mr. Counselor! . . . What's that? . . . you already want to depart?" "My train leaves in two hours. Goodbye!" He paid the bill at the buffet and hurried away, sending her a smile through the window. Cabinska still sat there, gazing out upon the street. "Is it possible that he loves me?" she thought to herself, sipping her cooled chocolate. She pulled some role out of her pocket, read a few lines, and again gazed out upon the street. The dilapidated hacks, pulled by lean horses, dragged along lazily; the tramways rumbled by; along the sidewalks people threaded like a long, immovable ribbon. The clock chimed three. Cabinska arose and started for home, walking slowly until she spied the editor walking with Nicolette and the calm horizon of her mind suddenly became clouded. "He, with Nicolette? . . . with that . . . base intriguer?" Already from a distance she scorched them with the gaze of a Gorgon. At the corner of Warecka Street, Nicolette suddenly disappeared and the editor approached her with a beaming countenance. "Good morning! . . ." he cried, extending his hand. Pepa measured him coolly and turned her face away. "What sort of nonsense is this, Pepa?" he asked, quietly. "Oh, you are unspeakably mean!" she retorted. "A comedy of some kind again? . . ." he queried. "You dare to speak to me in that way?" "Well . . . I'll quit then and merely say: good-day!" he snapped back angrily, bowed stiffly and, before she could bethink herself, jumped into a hack and drove away. Cabinska was petrified with indignation. Cabinska, on returning home whipped the children, scolded the nurse, and locked herself in her room. She heard her husband enter, ask for her, and knock at her door; when dinner was served, she did not come out, but paced angrily up and down her room. Soon thereafter, Janina arrived. Cabinska greeted her cordially in her boudoir, becoming suddenly unrecognizably hospitable.