Tired out at last, and drenched with salt water, they scrambled on to the shore, and sat down in the sun to rest.
"Ouf!" cried Jakoff, making a face. "That water is horrible! And what a lot there is of it!
"There is always plenty of what is bad ... boys, for example ... there are plenty of them!"
Malva was laughing and wringing out her hair, from which the water was dripping; her hair was dark and curly, but not very long.
"That's why you have chosen an old man!" hinted Jakoff, nudging her with his elbow.
"Some of the old fellows are worth more than the young ones."
"If the father is good, the son ought to be better."
"Indeed?... Where did you get your conceit from?"
"The girls in the village always told me that I was not half a bad-looking fellow...."
"What do the girls know about it?... You ought to have asked me."
She looked at him hard; an insulting smile was on his lips. Then she became serious, and said to him with anger in her voice--
"Better said than done!" said Jakoff, bursting out laughing.
Jakoff, who felt nervous, remained silent.
For half-an-hour or more they did not speak, but moved about in the sun drying their clothes.
The workers were beginning to emerge from the long line of dirty workmen's huts. In the distance they all looked strangely alike, all in rags and barefoot.... The sound of their hoarse voices was carried across the beach; one of them was striking on an empty barrel, and the tones seemed to be repeated; it sounded almost like the rattle of a drum. Two women were wrangling in piercing tones; dogs barked.
"They are beginning to move," said Jakoff. "And I wanted to be off early to the town! I have been losing my time with you...."
"You'll never do any good while you are after me!" she said in a tone that was half playful half serious.
"What a way you have of frightening people," said Jakoff.
"What about my father?" he exclaimed roughly. "My father indeed! I'm not a boy! ... What are you talking about?... We are not in a convent here.... I'm not blind.... And he's not such a saint, after all; and he doesn't deny himself anything.... He'd better leave me alone."
She watched him mockingly, and asked him with curiosity--
"Leave you alone?... What are you thinking of doing then?"