Sasha shrugged his shoulders and said:
"You're always spruce. Well, let's begin to work. Have you got any nails?"
"Wait a bit," replied Liudmilla. "Sit still a moment with me. You seem as if you had come on business and found it a bore to talk to me."
Sasha flushed and said tenderly:
"Dear Liudmillotchka, I would like to sit with you as long as you want, until you drove me out, but I've got my lessons to do."
Liudmilla sighed and said slowly:
"You're getting handsomer, Sasha."
Sasha reddened, laughed and protruded the end of his curled-up tongue.
"What a thing to say! You might think I was a girl from the way you talk."
"A beautiful face, but what kind of body? You might show it, at least to the waist," entreated Liudmilla caressingly, and put her arm round his shoulder.