Twenty-six and One and Other Stories

"Let me alone," said Iakov, making a forward movement. But Serejka had seized his other leg.

"Sit down by my side."

"Why? What new folly is this?"

"It is not folly. Sit down."

Iakov obeyed, grinding his teeth.

"What do you want?"

"Wait. Be silent, and I'll think, and then I'll talk."

He began staring at Iakov, who gave way.

Malva and Vassili walked for a few minutes in silence. Malva's eyes shone strangely. Vassili was gloomy and preoccupied. Their feet sank in the sand and they advanced slowly.

"Vassili!"

"What?"

He turned and looked at her.

"I made you quarrel with Iakov on purpose. You might both have lived here without quarrelling," she said in a calm tone.

There was not a shade of repentance in her words.

"Why did you do that?" asked Vassili, after a silence.

"I do not know – for nothing."

She shrugged her shoulders and smiled.

"What you have done was noble!" he said, with irritation.

She was silent.

"You will ruin my boy, ruin him entirely. You do not fear God, you have no shame! What are you going to do?"

"What should I do?" she said.

There was a ring of anguish, or vexation, in her voice.

"What you ought to do!" cried Vassili, seized suddenly with a fierce rage.

He felt a passionate desire to strike her, to knock her down and bury her in the sand, to kick her in the face, in the breast. He clenched his fists and looked back.

Yonder, near the barrels, he saw Iakov and Serejka. Their faces were turned in his direction.

"Get away with you! I could crush you!"

He stopped and hissed insults in her face. His eyes were bloodshot, his beard trembled and his hands seemed to advance involuntarily towards Malva's hair, which emerged from beneath her shawl.

She fixed her green eyes on him.

"You deserve killing," he said. "Wait, some one will break your head yet."

She smiled, still silent. Then she sighed deeply and said:

"That's enough! now farewell!"

And suddenly turning on her heels she left him and came back.

Vassili shouted after her and shook his fists. Malva, as she walked, took pains to place each foot in the deep impressions of Vassili's feet, and when she succeeded she carefully effaced the traces. Thus she continued on until she came to the barrels where Serejka greeted her with this question:

"Well, have you seen the last of him?"

She gave an affirmative sign, and sat down beside him. Iakov looked at her and smiled, gently moving his lips as if he were saying things that he alone heard.

"When will you go to the headland?" she asked Serejka, indicating the sea with a movement of her head.

"This evening."

"I will go with you."

"Bravo, that suits me."

"And I, too – I'll go," cried Iakov.

"Who invited you?" asked Serejka, screwing up his eyes.

The sound of a cracked bell called the men to work.

"She will invite me," said Iakov.

He looked defiantly at Malva.

"I? what need have I of you?" she replied, surprised.

"Let us he frank, Iakov," said Serejka. "If you annoy her, I'll beat you to a jelly. And if you as much as touch her with a finger, I'll kill you like a fly. I am a simple man."

His face, all his person, his knotty and muscular arms proved eloquently that killing a man would be a very simple thing for him.

Iakov recoiled a step and said, in a choking voice:

"Wait! That is for Malva to – "

"Keep quiet, that's all. You are not the dog that will eat the lamb.