"What about me?"
"Will you come too?"
"No."
"Then I shan't go either."
"Shall you stay tied to my apron-strings all day?" she asked.
"I don't want you as much as all that," he replied offended.
And he rose and left her.
But he made a mistake when he said that he did not need her. He was bored when she was not near. A strange sentiment seemed to have taken possession of him since their conversation, an obscure desire to protest against his hither, a sort of hidden discontent Yesterday he did not remember having this feeling; nor did he have it to-day before he had seen Malva. And now it seemed to him that his father was in his way, although he was far away out there, on a stretch of sand, almost lost to view.... Then it seemed to him that Malva was afraid of his father; if she had not been afraid, their conversation would have been quite different Now he seemed to want her, though this morning he had not been thinking about her.
He wandered about on the beach, watching with a melancholy eye the passers-by, speaking to them sometimes in a listless voice.... Here in the shade of a boat he finds Sereja seated on a barrel. He is thrumming the cords of a balalaika, and singing, accompanying his song with quaint grimaces—
"Kind constable,
Be gentle with me.
Take me to the police-station,
For I'm afraid of falling into the mud."