to be allowed to share the ecstasies and the agonies of his
inmost life.

Then there were other benefits accruing to Marija from
this friendship -- benefits of a more substantial nature.
People paid Tamoszius big money to come and make
music on state occasions; and also they would invite him
to parties and festivals, knowing well that he was too
good-natured to come without his fiddle, and that having
brought it, he could be made to play while others danced.
Once he made bold to ask Marija to accompany him to
such a party, and Marija accepted, to his great delight --
after which he never went anywhere without her, while if
the celebration were given by friends of his, he would
invite the rest of the family also. In any case Marija
would bring back a huge pocketful of cakes and sandwiches
for the children, and stories of all the good things she
herself had managed to consume. She was compelled, at
these parties, to spend most of her time at the refreshment
table, for she could not dance with anybody except other
women and very old men; Tamoszius was of an excitable
temperament, and afflicted with a frantic jealousy, and any
unmarried man who ventured to put his arm about the
ample waist of Marija would be certain to throw the
orchestra out of tune.

It was a great help to a person who had to toil all the
week to be able to look forward to some such relaxation as
this on Saturday nights. The family were too poor and too
hardworked to make many acquaintances; in Packing-
town, as a rule, people know only their near neighbors and
shopmates, and so the place is like a myriad of little country
villages. But now there was a member of the family who
was permitted to travel and widen her horizon; and so
each week there would be new personalities to talk about,
-- how so-and-so was dressed, and where she worked, and
what she got, and whom she was in love with; and how
this man had jilted his girl, and how she had quarrelled
with the other girl, and what had passed between them;
and how another man beat his wife, and spent all her
earnings upon drink, and pawned her very clothes. Some

-100-