"Is it true you're going to take lessons at the riding school ?" Pyotr Stepanovitch smiled a wry smile.

"I say," he said suddenly, with excessive haste in a voice that quivered and faltered, "I say, Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch, let's drop personalities once for all.

Of course, you can despise me as much as you like if it amuses you--but we'd better dispense with personalities for a time, hadn't we ?" "All right," Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch assented.
Pyotr Stepanovitch grinned, tapped his knee with his hat, shifted from one leg to the other, and recovered his former expression.
"Some people here positively look upon me as your rival with Lizaveta Nikolaevna, so I must think of my appearance, mustn't I," he laughed.
"Who was it told you that though?
H'm.

It's just eight o'clock; well I must be off.

I promised to look in on Varvara Petrovna, but I shall make my escape.