And above the sound of the waves there seemed to float towards them a blending of sighs and of tender appeals. CHAPTER II A fortnight afterwards, and Sunday had come round again, and once more Vassili Legostev, stretched on the sand near his hut, was watching the sea and waiting for Malva. And the vast sea smiled and played with the sun-rays, and tens of thousands of ripples ran quivering over the sands, leaving there the foam from their crests, and returning to melt once more into the sea. But Vassili, who formerly used to await the arrival of his mistress in peaceful security, awaited her now with impatience.... Last Sunday she did not come; to-day she would surely not fail him. He had scarcely a doubt on the subject; but he desired to see her quickly. Jakoff was not here to be in the way; the day before yesterday, when passing with some other fishermen to fetch a net, he had said that he was going into the town on Sunday to buy himself some shirts. He had taken a job at fifteen roubles a month. For several days now he had been working as a fisherman; he appeared to be bright and happy. He reeked, as did the other fishermen, of smoked fish, and like the others he was ragged and dirty. Vassili sighed when he thought of his son. "If he will only keep straight!... If he goes wrong, there'll be no getting him back to the village ... and I myself will have to go." There was nothing to be seen on the sea but the gulls. At the spot where it was divided from the sky by the narrow sandy streak of the shore-line, there appeared now and again little black specks which moved backwards and forwards, and then disappeared. But no boat was to be seen, although it was already noon; the sun's rays shone perpendicularly on the sea. Two gulls were struggling in the air, and fought so desperately that their feathers flew out on all sides. Their wild cries disturbed the joyful song of the waves, which in its constancy, and uniformity with the triumphant peace of the dazzling sky, seemed to be called forth by the play of light on the surface of the ocean. The gulls fell into the sea, where they continued to struggle and scream fiercely in their fury and pain; then they rose once more into the air in pursuit of each other ... heir friends--a whole flock of them--untroubled by the contemplation of this sorry struggle, continued to catch fish, and to turn somersaults in the transparent green sparkling water ...