“Then how Schneider told me about my childish nature, and⁠—”

“Oh, curse Schneider and his dirty opinions! Go on.”

“Then I began to talk about faces, at least about the expressions of faces, and said that Aglaya Ivanovna was nearly as lovely as Nastasia Philipovna. It was then I blurted out about the portrait⁠—”

“But you didn’t repeat what you heard in the study? You didn’t repeat that⁠—eh?”

“No, I tell you I did not .”

“Then how did they⁠—look here! Did Aglaya show my letter to the old lady?”