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.
"You'll see, when your father ..."
This reminder of his father vexed him.
"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?"