Chapter 4 Summary

In a series of letters to her friend Henryk in Poland, Maryna describes her journey and adventures in New York with her husband and son while they stay at an inn in Hoboken, N.J. before departing for California. In the first of these, Maryna says she has already begun to change and to leave behind some of the sadness of Poland. Maryna describes an unpleasant encounter with her former husband Heinrich before their ship left Bremerhaven, then tells Henryk she has contemplated jumping into the sea but that she was "upstaged" by another passenger who actually did go overboard and was not found in the darkness. Maryna proclaims her personal feminist doctrine of freedom and independence that the theater permits her, and laments her departure from the stage.

Maryna tells Henryk she has hired a Polish girl, Aniela, as a servant. In...