"What do you say?" he whispered hoarsely. "Who is she?"
"The loud-voiced, fat one—I don't know what her name is," whispered Peredonov.
"The loud-voiced one, the loud-voiced one," repeated Bogdanov in a confused way, "that must be Skobotchkina. Yes?"
"Yes, that must be the one," declared Peredonov.
"Well! Good heavens! Who'd have thought that!" exclaimed Bogdanov. "Skobotchkina in a red shirt! Well! Did you see it with your own eyes?"
"Yes, I saw her, and they tell me she goes into school like that. And sometimes even worse; she puts on a sarafan[1] and walks about like a common girl."
"You don't say so! I must look into it! We can't have that! We can't have that! She'll have to be dismissed, dismissed, I say," babbled on Bogdanov. "She was always like that."
Mass was over. As they were leaving the church, Peredonov said to Kramarenko:
"Here, you whippety-snippet! Why were you grinning in church? Just wait, I shall tell your father!"
Kramarenko looked at Peredonov in astonishment and ran past him without speaking. He belonged to that number of pupils who thought Peredonov coarse, stupid and unjust, and who therefore disliked and despised him. The majority of the pupils thought similarly. Peredonov imagined that these were the boys who had been prejudiced against him by the Head-Master, if not personally, at least through his sons.