You'll bear me a son, will you not?
"If it pleases God," she answered, lowering her head.
Then her mood began to irritate him.
"Well, why do you wear such a long face?
You walk as though on glass.
You look as if you had ruined somebody's soul! Eh! You are such a succulent woman, and yet you have no taste for anything.

Fool!" Coming home intoxicated one day, he began to ply her with caresses, while she turned away from him.

Then he grew angry, and exclaimed: "Natalya! Don't play the fool, look out!" She turned her face to him and asked calmly: "What then ?" Ignat became enraged at these words and at her fearless look.
"What ?" he roared, coming up close to her.
"Do you wish to kill me ?" asked she, not moving from her place, nor winking an eye.
Ignat was accustomed to seeing people tremble before his wrath, and it was strange and offensive to him to see her calm.
"There," he cried, lifting his hand to strike her.

Slowly, but in time, she eluded the blow; then she seized his hand, pushed it away from her, and said in the same tone: "Don't you dare to touch me.

I will not allow you to come near me!" Her eyes became smaller and their sharp, metallic glitter sobered Ignat.
He understood by her face that she, too, was a strong beast, and if she chose to she wouldn't admit him to her, even though she were to lose her life.
"Oh," he growled, and went away.
But having retreated once, he would not do it again: he could not bear that a woman, and his wife at that, should not bow before him--this would have degraded him.