"Of course, you think Pilnikov's a boy," he said screwing up his eyes in derision, "but he's not a boy at all, but a girl, and what sort of a girl!"
Khripatch uttered a dry, abrupt laugh, but his laughter sounded affected, it was so loud and mechanical—he always laughed like that.
"Ha! Ha! Ha!" he laughed mechanically, and when he had finished laughing he sat down in the chair and threw his head back as if he had dropped exhausted from laughing.
"You astonish me, my good Ardalyon Borisitch! Ha! Ha! Ha! Be so kind as to tell me upon what you base your supposition, if the premises which have led you to this conclusion are not secret! Ha! Ha! Ha!"
Peredonov recounted everything that he had heard from Varvara, and incidentally he dilated on the poor qualities of Kokovkina. Khripatch listened and now and then gave vent to his dry, mechanical laughter.
"I'm afraid, my dear Ardalyon Borisitch, that your imagination has played pranks with you," he said, as he rose and caught Peredonov by the sleeve. "I, as well as many of my esteemed friends, have children, we're not in our swaddling clothes. Surely you don't think that we would have admitted a disguised girl as a boy?"
"That's your opinion," said Peredonov. "But if anything should happen who's going to be responsible?"
"Ha! Ha! Ha!" laughed Khripatch. "What consequences are you afraid of?"
"It'll demoralise the school," said Peredonov.
Khripatch frowned and said: