But first of all the cunning Grushina gave Varvara coffee; then chased her children out into the street, which made the elder of her girls unwilling to go. "Ah, you little brat!" Grushina shouted at her. "You're a brat yourself!" answered the little girl and stamped her foot at her mother. Grushina caught the child by the hair, pushed her out the door and slammed it.... "The little beast!" she complained to Varvara. "These children are a great worry. I'm alone with them and I never get any peace. If only they had their father!" "Why don't you marry again, then they'd have a father," said Varvara. "You never can tell how a man'll turn out, Varvara Dmitrievna darling. He might treat them badly." In the meantime the little girl ran back from the street and threw into the window a handful of sand which fell on to her mother's head and dress. Grushina put her head out of the window and shouted: "Wait till I catch you, you little devil, and see what you'll get!" "You're a devil yourself, you silly fool!" shouted the little girl from the street, jumping on one foot and clenching her dirty little fist at her mother. "You just wait!" shouted Grushina. And she shut the window. Then she sat down calmly as if nothing had happened and began to talk: "I have a piece of news for you, but I don't know if I ought to tell you. But don't worry, Varvara Dmitrievna darling, they won't succeed." "Well, what is it?" asked Varvara in affright, and the saucer of coffee trembled in her hand. "You know that a young student by the name of Pilnikov has just entered the school and been put straight into the fifth form as if he'd come from Rouban, for his aunt has bought an estate in our district." "Yes, I know," said Varvara, "I saw him when he came with his aunt. Such a pretty boy, almost like a girl, and always blushing." "But, dearest, why shouldn't he look like a girl? He is a girl dressed up!" "What do you mean!" exclaimed Varvara. "They've thought of it on purpose to catch Ardalyon Borisitch," said Grushina quickly with many gesticulations, very happy that she had such important news to tell. "You see this girl has a first cousin, a boy, an orphan, who went to school at Rouban. And this girl's mother took him away from Rouban and used his papers to send the girl here. And you will notice that they have put him in a house where there are no other boys. He's there alone, so that the whole matter, they thought, would be kept secret." "And how did you find out?" asked Varvara incredulously.