"It doesn't matter," said Malva, half closing her eyes; "I am not angry: you beat me because you loved me.... I shan't forget that!"
She looked at him fixedly, gave a little shudder, and lowering her voice, repeated—
"No, I shan't forget that in a hurry."
Vassili gave to these words a meaning agreeable to himself; they seemed to cause him pleasant emotion, for he smiled, and said with a stupid self-satisfied expression—
"How do you mean? tell me."
"You'll see!" replied Malva quietly, but her lips trembled.
"Ah! my little jewel!" cried Vassili, crushing her in his arms.
"And, do you know, since I have beaten you I love you twice as much; you are all the dearer to me.... You seem to belong to me all the more...."
The gulls flew round them. The breeze from the sea threw up at their feet the foam from the waves, and the ceaseless ripple seemed to speak of peace.
"Ah! life! life!..." (Vassili dreamily caressed the girl, as she lay in his arms.) "This is ever the way of the world: what is forbidden is always pleasant ... Perhaps you don't know; but I sometimes think about life, and then I am frightened. Especially at night, when I can't sleep.... In front of me stretches the sea, above me is the sky, and all around me is terrifying darkness! And I am alone. And then I seem to grow small, so small, and the ground seems to rock under me, and it seems as if there were no one on the earth but myself! If I only had you at those moments ... at least we should be two together."