"But after all," said Peredonov, "I did it for their good."
"Please don't let us argue about it," Khripatch interrupted him sharply. "I request you most emphatically not to let this happen again."
Peredonov looked angrily at the Head-Master.
That evening they decided to have a house-warming. They invited all their acquaintances. Peredonov walked about the rooms to see that everything was in order and that there was nothing which could be the cause of his being informed against. He thought:
"Well, everything seems all right—there are no forbidden books visible, the ikon-lamps are alight, the Royal portraits are hanging in the place of honour on the wall."
Suddenly Mickiewicz winked at him from the wall.
"He might get me into trouble," thought Peredonov in fear. "I'd better take the portrait and put it in the privy and bring Pushkin back here."
"After all Pushkin was a courtier," he thought, as he hung the portrait on the dining-room wall.
Then he remembered that they would play cards in the evening, so he decided to examine the cards. He took the opened pack of cards which had only been used once and looked through them as if he were trying to find something. The faces of the court cards did not please him—they had such big eyes.
Latterly when he was playing it seemed to him that the cards smiled like Varvara. Even the ordinary six of spades had an insolent and unfriendly look.