Mitia only breathed freely when the door bell rang behind them, and they
were again in the street.

"There are ten roubles for you, and let me have the rest. I will give it
back to you."

Mahin went off to the theatre, and Mitia called on Grouchetsky to repay
the money he had borrowed from him.

IV

AN hour after the boys were gone Eugene Mihailovich, the owner of the
shop, came home, and began to count his receipts.

"Oh, you clumsy fool! Idiot that you are!" he shouted, addressing his
wife, after having seen the coupon and noticed the forgery.

"But I have often seen you, Eugene, accepting coupons in payment, and
precisely twelve rouble ones," retorted his wife, very humiliated,
grieved, and all but bursting into tears. "I really don't know how they
contrived to cheat me," she went on. "They were pupils of the school,
in uniform. One of them was quite a handsome boy, and looked so comme il
faut."

"A comme il faut fool, that is what you are!" The husband went on
scolding her, while he counted the cash. . . . When I accept coupons, I
see what is written on them. And you probably looked only at the boys'
pretty faces. "You had better behave yourself in your old age."