"I'm sorry that I've interrupted. If you give him a little leeway he gets very lazy."
At the beginning Volodin was mortified by Nadezhda's behaviour; then he thought that she hesitated to ask him to take coffee in case there should be gossip. Then he thought that she need not have come to look on at the lessons at all and yet she came—was it because she liked to see him? So Volodin reasoned to his advantage from the fact that Nadezhda from the very first had eagerly agreed that he should give lessons and had not stopped to bargain. He was encouraged in these suppositions by Peredonov and Varvara.
"It is clear that she's in love with you," said Peredonov.
"And what better fiancé could she have?" added Varvara.
Volodin tried to look modest and felt pleased with his prospects.
Once Peredonov said to him:
"You're a fiancé and yet you wear that shabby tie!"
"I'm not her fiancé yet, Ardasha," said Volodin soberly, nevertheless trembling with pleasure. "But I can easily get a new tie."
"Buy yourself one with a pattern in it," advised Peredonov. "So that it will be clear that love is burning within you."
"Better get a red one," said Varvara, "and the fancier the better. And a tie-pin. You can buy a tie-pin cheaply and with a stone too—it will be quite chic."