"Yes," said Peredonov savagely, "you couldn't even manage the little boy. Oh, you lover!"
"Well, what of that?" said Volodin. "Of course I'm a lover. I'll find another. She needn't think that I'll grieve for her."
"Oh, you lover," Peredonov continued to taunt him. "And he put a new tie on! How can a chap like you expect to be a gentleman? Lover!"
"Well, I'm the lover and you're the match-maker, Ardasha," argued Volodin. "You yourself aroused hopes in me and couldn't fulfil them. Oh, you matchmaker!"
And they began zealously to taunt one another and to argue as if they were discussing some important business matter.
Nadezhda escorted her visitors to the door and returned to the drawing-room. Misha was lying on the sofa laughing. His sister pulled him off the sofa by his shoulders and said:
"But you have forgotten that you oughtn't to listen behind doors."
She lifted her hands and made as if to cross her little fingers at an angle, a sign for him to go into the corner, but suddenly burst out laughing, and the little fingers did not come together. Misha threw himself towards her. They embraced and laughed for a long time.
"All the same," she said, "you ought to go in the corner for listening."