Page 1257 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

again overpersuaded him. Again, as the marsh was narrow,
Levin, like a good host, remained with the carriage.
Krak made straight for some clumps of sedge. Vassenka
Veslovsky was the first to run after the dog. Before Stepan

Arkadyevitch had time to come up, a grouse flew out.
Veslovsky missed it and it flew into an unmown meadow.
This grouse was left for Veslovsky to follow up. Krak
found it again and pointed, and Veslovsky shot it and went
back to the carriage. ‘Now you go and I’ll stay with the
horses,’ he said.
Levin had begun to feel the pangs of a sportsman’s
envy. He handed the reins to Veslovsky and walked into
the marsh.
Laska, who had been plaintively whining and fretting
against the injustice of her treatment, flew straight ahead
to a hopeful place that Levin knew well, and that Krak
had not yet come upon.
‘Why don’t you stop her?’ shouted Stepan
Arkadyevitch.
‘She won’t scare them,’ answered Levin, sympathizing
with his bitch’s pleasure and hurrying after her.
As she came nearer and nearer to the familiar breeding
places there was more and more earnestness in Laska’s
exploration. A little marsh bird did not divert her attention

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