Page 1285 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

that always excited her more than any other. Here and
there among the moss and marsh plants this scent was very
strong, but it was impossible to determine in which
direction it grew stronger or fainter. To find the direction,

she had to go farther away from the wind. Not feeling the
motion of her legs, Laska bounded with a stiff gallop, so
that at each bound she could stop short, to the right, away
from the wind that blew from the east before sunrise, and
turned facing the wind. Sniffing in the air with dilated
nostrils, she felt at once that not their tracks only but they
themselves were here before her, and not one, but many.
Laska slackened her speed. They were here, but where
precisely she could not yet determine. To find the very
spot, she began to make a circle, when suddenly her
master’s voice drew her off. ‘Laska! here?’ he asked,
pointing her to a different direction. She stopped, asking
him if she had better not go on doing as she had begun.
But he repeated his command in an angry voice, pointing
to a spot covered with water, where there could not be
anything. She obeyed him, pretending she was looking, so
as to please him, went round it, and went back to her
former position, and was at once aware of the scent again.
Now when he was not hindering her, she knew what to
do, and without looking at what was under her feet, and

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