Mr. Director?"
"You may consider yourself engaged," he answered. "As for your salary we shall speak of that another day."
"What am I to play? … I should like to take the part of Clara in
The Iron Master."
Cabinski glanced at her sharply and covered his mouth with his hand so as not to burst out laughing.
"Just a moment … just a moment … you must first acquaint yourself with the stage. In the meanwhile, you will appear with the chorus. Halt told me that you know how to play the piano and read notes. To-morrow I will give you some scores of the operettas we play and you can learn the chorus parts."
Janina went to the dressing-room and had scarcely opened the door, when someone pushed her back, slammed the door in her face and called out angrily: "Upstairs with you! that is where the chorus girls belong!"
She set her teeth and went upstairs.
The dressing-room of the chorus was a long, narrow and low apartment. Rows of unshaded gaslights burned above long bare, board tables extending along the walls on three sides of the room. The walls were covered with unbeveled and unpainted boards which were scribbled all over with names, dates jokes and caricatures, done in charcoal or rouge paint. On the bare wall hung a whole string of dresses and costumes.
About twenty women sat undressed before mirrors of various shapes, and before each one there burned candles.
Janina spying an unoccupied chair, near the door, sat down and began to look about her.
"I beg your pardon, but that is my seat!" called a stout brunette.
Janina stood aside.
"Did you come to see someone? … " asked the same chorus-girl, rubbing her face with vaseline before applying powder.
"No. I came to the dressing-room. I am one of the company," answered
Janina rather loudly.
"Oh, you are?"
A few heads raised themselves above the tables and a few pairs of eyes were centered upon Janina.
Janina told the brunette her name.
"Girls! … this new one calls herself Orlowska. Get acquainted with her!" called the brunette.
A few of those sitting nearest her stretched out their hands in greeting and then proceeded with their make-up.
"Louise, loan me some powder."
"Go buy it!"
"Say Sowinska!" called down one of the girls through the open door to the lower dressing-room, "I met that same guy … you know! … I was walking along Nowy Swiat."
"Tell it to the marines! Who would fall for such a scarecrow as you!" put in another.
"I've bought a new suit … look!" cried a small, very pretty blonde.
"You mean he bought it for you!"
"Goodness, no! … I bought it from my own savings."
"Persian lamb! … oh! … Do you think we'll believe you? …
Come now, you bought it out of that fellow's savings, didn't you?"
"It's pure lily! … The waist is low-cut with a yoke of cream-colored embroidery, the skirt is plain with a shirred hem, the hat is trimmed with violets," another girl was recounting, as she slipped her ballet skirts over her head.
"Listen there, you lily-colored kid … give me back that ruble that you owe me. … "
"After the play when I get it I'll give it back to you, honest!"
"Ha! ha! Cabinski will give it to you, like fun … "
"I tell you, my dear, I'm getting desperate. … He coughed a little … but I thought nothing of it … until yesterday, when I looked down his little throat I saw … white spots … I ran for the doctor … he examined him and said: diphtheria! I sat by him all night, rubbed his throat every hour … he couldn't say a word, only showed me with his little finger how it hurt … and the tears streamed down his face so pitifully that I thought I'd die of grief … I left the janitress with him, for I must make some money … I left my cloak to cover him with … but all, all that is not enough! … " a slim and pretty actress with a face worn by suffering and poverty was telling her neighbor in a subdued voice, while she curled her hair, carmined her pale lips, and with the pencil gave a defiant touch to her eyes dimmed by tears and sleepiness.
"Helen! your mother asked about you to-day … "
"Surely, not about me … my mother died long ago."
"Don't tell me that! Majkowska knows you and your mother well and saw you together on Marshalkowska Street the other day."
"Majkowska ought to buy herself a pair of glasses, if she's so blind as that … I was going downtown with the housekeeper."
The other girls began to laugh at her. The one who had denied her mother blew out her candle and left in irritation.
"She's ashamed of her own mother. That's true, but such a mother! … "
"A plain peasant woman. She compromises her before everybody. …
At least, she could refrain from making a show before other people!"
"How so? Can a girl be ashamed of her mother? … " cried Janina, who had been sitting in silence, until those last words stirred her to indignation.
"You are a newcomer, so you don't know anything," several answered her at once.
"May I come in? … " called a masculine voice from without.
"You can't! you can't!" chorused the girls energetically.
"Zielinska! your editor has come."
A tall, stout chorus girl, rustling her skirts, passed out of the room.
"Shepska! take a look out after them."
Shepska went out, but came back immediately.
"They've gone downstairs."
The stage bell rang violently.
"To the stage!" called the stage-director at the door. "We begin immediately!"
There arose an indescribable hubbub. All the girls began to talk and shout at the same time; they ran about, tore away hairpins and curling irons from one another, powdered themselves, quarreled over trifles, blew out candles, hastily closed their dressing-cases and rushed down the stairs in crowds, for the second bell had already sounded.
Janina descended last of all and stood behind the scenes. The performance began. They were playing some kind of half fairy-like operetta. Janina could hardly recognize those people or that theater everything had undergone such a magical transformation and taken on a new beauty under the influence of powder, paint, and light! …
The music, with the quiet caressing tones of the flute, floated through the silence and stole into Janina's soul, lulling it sweetly … and later, a dance of some kind, soft, voluptuous, and intoxicating, enveloped her with its charm, lured and rocked her on the waves of rhythm and held her in an ecstatic lethargy.
She felt herself drawn ever farther into a confused whirl of lights, tones and colors. Her impulsive and sensuous nature, struggling hitherto with the drab commonplace of everyday events and people, was fascinated. It was almost as she had visioned it in her soul; full of lights, music, thrilling accents, ecstatic swoons, strong colors, and stormy and overpowering emotions, breaking with the force of thunderbolts.
The suffocating odor of powder dust floated about her like a cloud, while from the crowded hall there flowed a stream of hot breaths and desiring glances that broke against the stage like a magnetic wave, drowning in forgetfulness all that was not song, music, and pleasure.
When