She remained in the hut, exciting the lad with her bold, provoking eyes.
"Perhaps you have left your sweetheart behind you in the village," she said suddenly.
"Perhaps I have!" he replied unwillingly.
And in his heart he was abusing Malva.
"Is she pretty?" she asked indifferently.
Jakoff did not reply.
"Why don't you answer?... Is she prettier than I am?"
He looked at her almost against his will. Her cheeks were flushed and sunburnt, her lips full and tempting, and now that a mischievous smile lurked about them, they seemed to tremble. She wore a becoming little blouse of pink cotton, showing the outline of her rounded shoulders, her full and supple bosom. But he did not like her green, cunning, mocking eyes.
"Why do you talk like that?"
He sighed involuntarily, and spoke in a pleading voice; he would have liked, if he could have done so, to have spoken to her in a severe tone.