"It's quite useless to ask you not to listen behind doors. Must I really be very stern with you?" Misha, catching her by the waist, with his head against her, laughed and shook with his efforts to suppress his laughter. She pushed Misha into his room, sat down on a chair near the door and began to laugh. "Did you hear what he's thinking of, your Pavel Vassilyevitch?" she said. "Come with me into the drawing-room and don't you dare to laugh. I will ask you in their presence and don't you dare say 'yes.' Do you understand?" "Oo-hoo," blurted out Misha, and stuck a corner of his handkerchief in his mouth to stop his laughing, but with little success. "Cover your face with your handkerchief when you want to laugh," his sister advised him, and led him by his shoulder into the drawing-room. There she placed him in an arm-chair and sat down on a chair at his side. Volodin looked offended and lowered his head like a little ram. "You see," she said, pointing at her brother, "I've barely dried his tears, poor boy! I have to be a mother to him, and he has a sudden idea that I'm going to leave him." Misha covered his face with his handkerchief. His whole body shook. In order to hide his laughter he uttered a protracted moan: "Oo-oo-oo." Nadezhda embraced him, pinched his hand secretly and said: "Well, stop crying, my dear, stop crying." Misha for a moment unexpectedly felt touched and tears came into his eyes. He lowered his handkerchief and looked angrily at his sister. "The youngster might suddenly get into a fit," thought Peredonov, "and begin to bite; human spit, they say, is poisonous." He moved closer to Volodin, so that in case of danger he could hide behind him. Nadezhda said to her brother: "Pavel Vassilyevitch asks for my hand." "Hand and heart," corrected Peredonov. "And heart," added Volodin modestly but with dignity. Misha covered his face with his handkerchief and choking with suppressed laughter said: "No, don't marry him. What would become of me?" Volodin, hurt but agitated, said in a trembling voice: "I'm surprised, Nadezhda Vassilyevna, that you are asking your brother, who is besides quite a child. Even if he were a grown-up young man you might speak for yourself. But at your asking him now, Nadezhda Vassilyevna, I am not only surprised but shocked." "To ask little boys seems ridiculous to me," said Peredonov gravely. "Whom have I to ask? It's all the same to my aunt, and as I'm responsible for his upbringing how can I marry you. Perhaps you would treat him harshly. Isn't it so, Mishka, that you're afraid of his harshness?" "No, Nadya," said Misha, looking out with one eye from behind his handkerchief. "I'm not afraid of his harshness. Why should I? But I am afraid that Pavel Vassilyevitch would spoil me and not allow you to put me in the corner."