"You're presuming too far. All that you have told me so far doesn't give me the slightest cause for sharing in your suspicion."
That same evening Peredonov rapidly went round to all his colleagues, from the inspector down to the form-masters, and told everyone that Pilnikov was a girl in disguise. They all laughed and refused to believe him, but when he left several of them began to wonder if it were not true. The Masters' wives believed it immediately.
Next morning many came to their classes with the thought that Peredonov was possibly right. They did not speak of this openly, yet they no longer argued with Peredonov and limited themselves to indecisive and ambiguous answers; each was afraid that he would be considered stupid if he argued about the matter, should it afterwards prove to be true. Many would have liked to know what the Head-Master thought of it, but the Head-Master stopped in his own house more than usual. He came very late to the one lesson he gave that day to the sixth form, remained there hardly more than five minutes and then went to his study without speaking to anyone.
At last, before the fourth lesson, the grey-haired Divinity Master and two other instructors went to the Head-Master's study on the pretext of business and the Divinity Master cautiously led up to the subject of Pilnikov. But the Head-Master laughed so confidently and so indifferently that all three became convinced that the whole thing was an invention. The Head-Master quickly went on to other subjects, told a new piece of town news, complained about his bad headache and said that he would probably have to call in the gymnasia doctor, Evgeny Ivanovitch. Then he told them in a very good-natured voice that his lesson that day had only made his headache worse, for, as it happened, Peredonov was in the next class and the students had for some reason or other laughed frequently and with extraordinary loudness. Khripatch laughed dryly and said:
"This year fate has not been kind to me—three times a week I am compelled to sit in a class-room next to Ardalyon Borisitch, And just imagine! There is constant boisterous laughter. One would think that Ardalyon Borisitch was not at all an amusing man and yet he always arouses merriment!"
And without giving them time to comment on this, Khripatch changed the subject.
It was true that recently there had been a good deal of laughter at Peredonov's classes—though they did not particularly please him. On the contrary, children's laughter annoyed Peredonov, but he could not restrain himself from saying things which were malapropos and unnecessary: now he would tell a stupid anecdote, now he would try to subdue one of the most quiet boys by sneering at him. In his classes there were also a number of boys who were glad of every opportunity to create disorder—and at every one of Peredonov's sallies they would roar with laughter.
After school Khripatch sent for the physician, picked up his hat and went into his garden which was situated between the school and the river-bank. The garden was large and shady. The little boys loved it. They were allowed to run about in it freely during recreation, but this was the reason why the assistant masters did not like it. They were afraid that something would happen to the boys. But Khripatch insisted that the boys should spend their recreation time in the garden. This was necessary in order to make his reports appear more imposing.
As he walked through the corridor he stopped outside the Gymnasium hall for a while, and then walked in with bent head. From his cheerless face and slow walk, everyone knew that he had a headache.