Page 1258 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

for more than an instant. She made one circuit round the
clump of reeds, was beginning a second, and suddenly
quivered with excitement and became motionless.
‘Come, come, Stiva!’ shouted Levin, feeling his heart

beginning to beat more violently; and all of a sudden, as
though some sort of shutter had been drawn back from his
straining ears, all sounds, confused but loud, began to beat
on his hearing, losing all sense of distance. He heard the
steps of Stepan Arkadyevitch, mistaking them for the
tramp of the horses in the distance; he heard the brittle
sound of the twigs on which he had trodden, taking this
sound for the flying of a grouse. He heard too, not far
behind him, a splashing in the water, which he could not
explain to himself.
Picking his steps, he moved up to the dog.
‘Fetch it!’
Not a grouse but a snipe flew up from beside the dog.
Levin had lifted his gun, but at the very instant when he
was taking aim, the sound of splashing grew louder, came
closer, and was joined with the sound of Veslovsky’s
voice, shouting something with strange loudness. Levin
saw he had his gun pointed behind the snipe, but still he
fired.

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