A 48 year old woman was admitted with a history of weakness for two months. On examination, she has enlarged cervical lymph nodes and spleen. Her hemoglobin was 10.5 g/dl, platelet count 2.7 x 109/L and total leukocyte count 40 x 109/L, which included 80% mature lymphoid cells with coarse clumped chromatin. Bone marrow revealed a nodular lymphoid infiltrate. The peripheral blood lymphoid cells were positive for CD 19, CD5, CD20 and CD23 and were negative for CD79B and FMC-7. The histopathological examination of the lymph node in this patient, will most likely exhibit effacement of lymph node arachitecture by: