Page 1264 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

but at that instant another snipe flew up at his very feet,
distracting him so that he missed again.
While they were loading their guns, another snipe rose,
and Veslovsky, who had had time to load again, sent two

charges of small-shot into the water. Stepan Arkadyevitch
picked up his snipe, and with sparkling eyes looked at
Levin.
‘Well, now let us separate,’ said Stepan Arkadyevitch,
and limping on his left foot, holding his gun in readiness
and whistling to his dog, he walked off in one direction.
Levin and Veslovsky walked in the other.
It always happened with Levin that when his first shots
were a failure he got hot and out of temper, and shot
badly the whole day. So it was that day. The snipe showed
themselves in numbers. They kept flying up from just
under the dogs, from under the sportsmen’s legs, and
Levin might have retrieved his ill luck. But the more he
shot, the more he felt disgraced in the eyes of Veslovsky,
who kept popping away merrily and indiscriminately,
killing nothing, and not in the slightest abashed by his ill
success. Levin, in feverish haste, could not restrain himself,
got more and more out of temper, and ended by shooting
almost without a hope of hitting. Laska, indeed, seemed to
understand this. She began looking more languidly, and

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