Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com diers with them, or sent them hiding all over the house. He
had done so more than once before and was not above do-
ing it, so much so that a report once spread at school that
Krassotkin played horses with the little lodgers at home,
prancing with his head on one side like a trace-horse. But
Krassotkin haughtily parried this thrust, pointing out that
to play horses with boys of one’s own age, boys of thirteen,
would certainly be disgraceful ‘at this date,’ but that he did
it for the sake of ‘the kids’ because he liked them, and no
one had a right to call him to account for his feelings. The
two ‘kids’ adored him.
But on this occasion he was in no mood for games. He
had very important business of his own before him, some-
thing almost mysterious. Meanwhile time was passing and
Agafya, with whom he could have left the children, would
not come back from market. He had several times already
crossed the passage, opened the door of the lodgers’ room
and looked anxiously at ‘the kids’ who were sitting over the
book, as he had bidden them. Every time he opened the
door they grinned at him, hoping he would come in and
would do something delightful and amusing. But Kolya was
bothered and did not go in.
At last it struck eleven and he made up his mind, once for
all, that if that ‘damned’ Agafya did not come back within
ten minutes he should go out without waiting for her, mak-
ing ‘the kids’ promise, of course, to be brave when he was
away, not to be naughty, not to cry from fright. With this
idea he put on his wadded winter overcoat with its catskin
fur collar, slung his satchel round his shoulder, and, regard-