"Well?"

He looked at her, and turned away immediately.

"It was I who made you quarrel on purpose with Jakoff.... You might have both lived here without quarrelling," she said, in a voice that was even and unmoved.

There was not a shade of regret in her words.

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

"I don't know ... for no reason."

She shrugged her shoulders and smiled.

"That's a nice thing you have done," he said irritably.

She was silent.

"You will make me lose my boy, lose him altogether; you sorceress! Have you no fear of God? Are you not ashamed?... What are you going to do?"