Page 1256 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘Oh, no, it was jolly all the same. Did you see us?’ said
Vassenka Veslovsky, clambering awkwardly into the
wagonette with his gun and his peewit in his hands. ‘How
splendidly I shot this bird! Didn’t I? Well, shall we soon be

getting to the real place?’
The horses started off suddenly, Levin knocked his
head against the stock of someone’s gun, and there was the
report of a shot. The gun did actually go off first, but that
was how it seemed to Levin. It appeared that Vassenka
Veslovsky had pulled only one trigger, and had left the
other hammer still cocked. The charge flew into the
ground without doing harm to anyone. Stepan
Arkadyevitch shook his head and laughed reprovingly at
Veslovsky. But Levin had not the heart to reprove him. In
the first place, any reproach would have seemed to be
called forth by the danger he had incurred and the bump
that had come up on Levin’s forehead. And besides,
Veslovsky was at first so naively distressed, and then
laughed so good-humoredly and infectiously at their
general dismay, that one could not but laugh with him.
When they reached the second marsh, which was fairly
large, and would inevitably take some time to shoot over,
Levin tried to persuade them to pass it by. But Veslovsky

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