Sasha left home after lunch and did not return at the appointed time, at seven; Kokovkina was worried:
"May God preserve him from meeting one of his masters in the street at a forbidden time! He'll be punished and I shall feel uncomfortable," she thought. Quiet boys always lived at her house and did not wander about at night. Kokovkina went to look for Sasha. Where else could he be except at the Routilovs'.
As ill luck would have it, Liudmilla that evening had forgotten to lock the door. Kokovkina entered, and what did she see? Sasha stood before the mirror in a woman's dress, waving a fan. Liudmilla was laughing and arranging ribbons at his brightly-coloured belt.
"Good heavens!" exclaimed Kokovkina in horror. "What's this? I was worried and came to look for him, and here he is acting a comedy. What a disgrace for him to dress himself in a skirt. And aren't you ashamed, Liudmilla Platonovna?"
Liudmilla was for a moment very embarrassed because of the suddenness of the thing, but soon recovered herself. She embraced Kokovkina with a laugh, sat her in a chair and invented an explanation:
"We are going to have a play at home—I shall be a boy and he'll be a girl and it'll be very amusing."
Sasha stood flushed and terrified, with tears in his eyes.
"What nonsense!" said Kokovkina angrily, "he ought to be studying his lessons and not waste his time play-acting. What will you think of next! Dress yourself at once, Aleksandr, and march home with me."
Liudmilla laughed loudly and gaily and kissed Kokovkina—and the old woman thought that the happy girl was very child-like, and that Sasha obediently carried out all her whims. Liudmilla's laughter, at this moment, showed this to be only a simple childish prank, for which they would only have to be lectured a little. And Kokovkina grumbled, assuming an angry face, but her feelings were already calmed down.
Sasha quickly redressed himself behind the screen, where Liudmilla's bed stood. Kokovkina took him off, and scolded him all the way home. Sasha felt ashamed and frightened and did not attempt to justify himself.