Majkowska, all breathless, ran up to Glogowski.
"Mr. Glogowski! come, hurry!" she cried, taking him by the hand.
"Let me alone!" he growled threateningly.
Majkowska left him and Glogowski sat there and continued to think.
Neither the applause, nor the demands for his appearance nor the success of his play interested him any longer, for he was sorely worried by the knowledge that his play was entirely bad. He saw its defects ever more plainly and the knowledge that another one of his efforts had proved vain made him writhe with pain. With helpless rage he listened to the public applauding the rude and characteristically comic episodes which were merely the background upon which the souls of his Churls had to be outlined, while the theme and thesis of the play itself pa.s.sed without making any impression.
"Mr. Glogowski I want you to go out after the fifth act if they call for you," Janina said to him decisively.
"But please consider, who is calling for me! Don"t you see that it is the gallery? Don"t you see the smiles of derision upon the faces of the press and the public in the first rows of seats? I tell you the play is bad, abominable and rotten! Wait and see what they will write about it to-morrow."
"What will happen to-morrow we shall see to-morrow. To-day there is success and your splendid play."
"Splendid!" he cried painfully. "If you could see the plan of it that I have here in my head, if you could see how splendid and complete it is here, you would know that what they are playing is merely a poor rag and a fragment."
Immediately afterwards Cabinski, Topolski, and Kotlicki approached Glogowski and urged him to appear before the public, but still he resisted. Only at the end of the play when the entire audience was wildly applauding and calling for the author, Glogowski went out on the stage with Majkowska, bowed ostentatiously, smoothed his shock of hair and clumsily retreated behind the scenes.
"If the play had dances, songs, and music, I wager it would run to the end of the season," said Cabinski.
"Dry up, or drink yourself to death, but do not tell me such nonsense," shouted Glogowski. "The next thing you know, the restaurant-keeper will come running in here and begin to berate me because for the same reasons he sold less beer and whiskey; a public that must listen and laughs seldom prefers hot tea."
"But my dear sir, n.o.body writes plays for himself, he writes them for other human beings."
"Yes, for human beings, but not for Zulus," retorted Glogowski.
Kotlicki again approached Glogowski and spoke to him for a long while. Glogowski frowned and said: "First of all, I haven"t the money for it, for it would cost a great deal and, in the second place, I am not at all anxious to be "one of our well-known and celebrated," for that is a prost.i.tution of one"s talent!"
"I can be of service to you with my funds, if you wish. . . . I presume that our old ties of companionship at school . . ."
"Let us drop that! . . ." Glogowski violently interrupted him. "But that has given me a certain idea . . . Suppose we arrange a little supper, but only for a few persons, eh?"
"Good! we will draw up a list right away; Mr. and Mrs. Cabinski, Majkowska and Topolski, Mimi and Wawrzecki and Glas, as an entertainer, of course. Whom else shall we include?"
Kotlicki wished to suggest Janina, but was restrained from saying so openly.
"Aha! I know . . . Miss Orlowska . . . the Filipka of my play! Did you see how superbly she acted the part?"
"Indeed, she played it well . . ." answered Kotlicki, glancing suspiciously at Glogowski, for he thought that he also had designs upon Janina.
"Go and invite them. I will come right away."
Kotlicki went out into the restaurant garden, while Glogowski hurried upstairs to the chorus dressing-room and called through the door: "Miss Orlowska!"
Janina peered out.
"Please hurry and get dressed for the whole crowd of us is going out for supper and you can"t refuse."
About a half hour later they were all sitting in a room of one of the large restaurants on Nowy Swiat.
The whiskey and lunch were attacked energetically for the nervous strain of the last few hours had sharpened everybody"s appet.i.te.
They spoke little, but drank a great deal.
Janina did not wish to drink, but Glogowski begged her and cried out: "You must drink and that settles it. You must drink, if only to celebrate such an honorable burial as we have held to-day."
She drank one gla.s.s on trial, but afterwards was forced to drink others; moreover, she felt that it helped her, for she had not yet rid herself of stage nervousness and was trembling about the fate of the play.
After various courses had been served, the waiters placed on the table a whole battery of bottles full of wines and liqueurs.
"Now we"ll have something to fight with!" cried Glas jovially, tinkling a bottle with his knife.
"You will fall a victim to your own triumph, if you continue to attack with the same fervor," laughed Wawrzecki.
"You people can talk, while we drink!" called Kotlicki, raising his gla.s.s. "Here"s to the health of our author!"
"May you choke, you Zulu!" growled Glogowski, rising and touching gla.s.ses with everybody.
"May he live long and write a new masterpiece each year!" cried Cabinski, already quite tipsy.
"You, Director, also create masterpieces almost every year, yet no one upbraids you for it," jested Glas.
"With the help of G.o.d and man, gentlemen, yes, yes!" answered Cabinski.
Mimi burst out laughing and all joined her.
"Come let me hug you! For once you do not lie!" cried Glas.
Pepa almost died laughing.
"Here"s to the health of Mr. and Mrs. Director!" called Wawrzecki.
"May they live long and with the help of G.o.d and man create more masterpieces!"
"Here"s to the health of the whole company!"
"And now let us drink to the public."
"Permit me to interrupt you a moment. Since I alone here represent the public, therefore render homage to me. Approach me with respect and drink to me. You may even kiss me and ask me for some favor. I will consider your request and bestow whatever I am able to!" cried Kotlicki gleefully.
He took a gla.s.s from the table, stood before a mirror and waited.
"Can you beat that for conceit! I will be the first to undergo the ordeal!" cried Glogowski, and with br.i.m.m.i.n.g gla.s.s, already a bit wobbly on his pins he approached Kotlicki.
"Most esteemed and gracious lady! I give you plays written with my heart"s blood; only understand and value them justly!" he declaimed with mock pathos, kissing Kotlicki"s face.
"If you, oh master, will write them for me, if you will not offend me with brutalities, if you will reckon with me and write for me alone so that I can enjoy and entertain myself, then I will give you success!"
"First I will kick you and may you croak!" hissed Glogowski bitterly.