Page 1283 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

conducted Levin, and moved back the fence for him by
the threshing floor.
‘Straight on and you’ll come to the marsh. Our lads
drove the cattle there yesterday evening.’

Laska ran eagerly forward along the little path. Levin
followed her with a light, rapid step, continually looking
at the sky. He hoped the sun would not be up before he
reached the marsh. But the sun did not delay. The moon,
which had been bright when he went out, by now shone
only like a crescent of quicksilver. The pink flush of dawn,
which one could not help seeing before, now had to be
sought to be discerned at all. What were before undefined,
vague blurs in the distant countryside could now be
distinctly seen. They were sheaves of rye. The dew, not
visible till the sun was up, wetted Levin’s legs and his
blouse above his belt in the high growing, fragrant hemp
patch, from which the pollen had already fallen out. In the
transparent stillness of morning the smallest sounds were
audible. A bee flew by Levin’s ear with the whizzing
sound of a bullet. He looked carefully, and saw a second
and a third. They were all flying from the beehives behind
the hedge, and they disappeared over the hemp patch in
the direction of the marsh. The path led straight to the
marsh. The marsh could be recognized by the mist which

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