[CHAPTER XIII]
Towards evening Peredonov appeared before the Head-Master—to talk on business.
The Head-Master, Nikolai Vlasyevitch Khripatch had a certain number of rules which were sufficiently practical and not difficult to keep. He calmly fulfilled all the school laws and regulations and also kept to the rules of a generally-accepted mild Liberalism. This was why the school authorities, the parents and the students were equally satisfied with the Head-Master. He had no moments of doubt, no indecisions and no hesitations—what was the use of them?—one could always rely on the decisions of the Pedagogical Council or on the instructions of the Educational authorities. He was no less calm and correct in his personal relations. His very appearance gave the impression of good-nature and steadiness. He was short, robust, active, with keen eyes, and with a confident voice. He seemed a man who ordered his life well and who was always ready to improve. There were many books on the shelves in his study. He made notes from them. When he had accumulated a sufficient number of notes, he would put them in order and paraphrase them—that was how a text-book was compiled, published and circulated, of course not so successfully as the text-books of Ushinsky and Evtoushevsky but still they were not a failure. Sometimes he put together, chiefly from foreign books, a compilation which was very respectable and quite unnecessary to anyone and published it in a periodical equally respectable and equally unnecessary. He had a number of children and all of them, boys and girls, already gave indication of various talents: some wrote verses, some drew, some made rapid progress in music.
Peredonov said morosely:
"You're always down on me, Nikolai Vlasyevitch. Perhaps someone has been slandering me to you, but I've done nothing of the kind."
"I beg your pardon," the Head-Master interrupted him, "I don't understand what slanders you have in mind. In the management of the gymnasia entrusted to me, I make use of my own observations, and I dare hope that my educational experience is sufficient to estimate with proper correctness what I see and what I hear, all the more in view of my close attention to my duties which I have made an unbreakable rule."
Khripatch said this quickly and decisively, and his voice sounded dry and clear, like the sharp noise given out by a zinc bar when bent. He went on:
"As far as it concerns my personal opinion of you, I still continue to think that there are sad lapses in your professional activity."
"Yes," said Peredonov morosely. "You've taken it into your head that I'm good for nothing. Yet I'm always preoccupied with the gymnasia."
Khripatch lifted his eyebrows in astonishment and glanced questioningly at Peredonov.