"My son has nothing to do in the matter.... And if I have beaten you it was because you deserved it: why did you nag at me?"
And with provoking playfulness, she rubbed against his shoulder. He glanced hastily towards the hut, and then kissed the young girl.
"To try me indeed!... a fine idea ... now you see what you have got."
"It doesn't matter," said Malva, half closing her eyes; "I am not angry: you beat me because you loved me.... I shan't forget that!"
She looked at him fixedly, gave a little shudder, and lowering her voice, repeated--
Vassili gave to these words a meaning agreeable to himself; they seemed to cause him pleasant emotion, for he smiled, and said with a stupid self-satisfied expression--
"You'll see!" replied Malva quietly, but her lips trembled.
"Ah! my little jewel!" cried Vassili, crushing her in his arms.
"And, do you know, since I have beaten you I love you twice as much; you are all the dearer to me.... You seem to belong to me all the more...."
The gulls flew round them. The breeze from the sea threw up at their feet the foam from the waves, and the ceaseless ripple seemed to speak of peace.
"Ah! life! life!..." (Vassili dreamily caressed the girl, as she lay in his arms.) "This is ever the way of the world: what is forbidden is always pleasant ... Perhaps you don't know; but I sometimes think about life, and then I am frightened. Especially at night, when I can't sleep.... In front of me stretches the sea, above me is the sky, and all around me is terrifying darkness! And I am alone. And then I seem to grow small, so small, and the ground seems to rock under me, and it seems as if there were no one on the earth but myself! If I only had you at those moments ... at least we should be two together."
Malva, with closed eyes, was lying across Vassili's knees; and she remained silent The rough open face of the peasant, tanned by the wind and the sun, was bent towards her, and his beard touched lightly her neck. The girl did not move, only her bosom rose and fell. Vassili's eyes wandered over the sea, and from time to time glanced at Malva's bosom which lay there so near him. And he went on telling her how lonely he was, living here alone, and how painful were his sleepless nights, filled with dark thoughts about life. Then he kissed her mouth slowly, and with the sort of noise that he would have made when eating a warm thick soup. They remained there perhaps three hours, and when the sun began to go down into the sea, Vassili said in a tone of annoyance--