your wife," said Malva, calmly. "You have been accustomed
to beat your wife for nothing, and you imagine that you can do the same
with me. No, I am free. I belong only to myself, and I am afraid of no
one. But you are afraid of your son, and now you dare threaten me."

She shook her head with disdain. Her careless manner cooled Vassili's
anger. He had never seen her look so beautiful.

"I have something else to tell you," she went on. "You boasted to
Serejka that I could no more get along without you than without bread,
and that I cannot live without you. You are mistaken. Perhaps it is
not you that I love and not for you that I come. Perhaps I love the
peace of this deserted beach. (Here she made a wide gesture with her
arms.) Perhaps I love these lonely sands, with their vast stretch of
sea and sky, and to be away from vile beings. Because you are here is
nothing to me. If this were Serejka's place I should come here. If
your son lived here, I should come too. It would be better still if no
one were here, for I am disgusted with you all. But if I take it into
my head one day--beautiful as I am--I can always choose a man, and one
who'll please me better than you."

"So, so!" hissed Vassili, furiously, and he seized her by the throat.
"So that's your game, is it?"

He shook her, and she did not strive to get away from his grasp,
although her face was congested and her eyes bloodshot. She merely
placed her two hands on the rough hands that were around her throat.

"Ah, now I know you!" Vassili was hoarse with rage. "And yet you said
you loved me, and you kissed me and caressed me? Ah, I'll show you!"

Holding her down to the ground, he struck her repeatedly with his
clenched fist. Finally, fatigued with the exertion, he pushed her away
from him crying:

"There, serpent. Now you've got what you deserved."

Without a complaint, silent and calm, Malva fell back on her back, all
crumpled, red and still beautiful. Her green eyes watched him furtively
under the lashes, and burned with a cold flame full of hatred, but he,
gasping with excitement and satisfied with the punishment he had
inflicted, did not notice the look, and when he stooped down towards her
to see if she was crying, she smiled up at him gently.

He looked at her, not understanding and not knowing what to do next.
Should he beat her again? But his fury was appeased, and he had no
desire to recommence.

"How you love me!" she wh