"I am citizen," replied Sereja with pride. "A citizen of the town of Ouglitch."
"And I of Pavlitcha," said Malva dreamily.
"I have no one to protect me. But those devils of peasants, they can live well. They have a municipality and everything."
"A municipality? Devil take me if I know!... It's something made for peasants; it's their council.... Don't let's talk any more of that. Let's talk of our own business. Will you arrange this matter, tell me? No harm will come of it. They will just knock each other about a little.... I will help you.... Vassili beat you, did he?... Then let his son give you back the blows that you have received."
"Why not?" said Malva, smiling. "It wouldn't be a bad thing."
"Just think a little, isn't it amusing to see how people knock each other about because of you? You just wag your tongue once or twice, and it's done."
Sereja for some time went on exposing to her in a flattering light, and with much enthusiasm the charms of the part which he proposed she should play. He was both joking and serious, and was himself carried away.
"Ah! if only I were a beautiful woman! How I would turn the world topsy-turvy!" he cried at the end of their talk.
Then he took his head into his hands, pressed it, closed his eyes and was silent.
The moon was high when they separated After they had left, the beauty of the night intensified. There remained but the boundless, marvellous sea, flecked by the silver of the moon; and the star-sown sky. The little sand-hills, the bushy willows, and the two long rows of huts like two enormous coffins, appeared quite insignificant in the face of the sea, and of the stars, which twinkled coldly as they contemplated it.
The father and son were seated in the hut opposite each other, and were drinking vodka, which the son had brought to conciliate the elder man, and to prevent them being bored in each other's company.
Sereja had told Jakoff that his father was angry with him because of Malva, and that he had threatened to beat Malva till she was half dead. The young woman had been told of this threat, and that was why she had not yielded to Jakoff. Sereja had mischievously misled him.
"He'll punish you for your larks. He'll pull your ears till they are half-a-yard long. You had better not get in his way!"