Page 1746 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Chapter 17

The old prince and Sergey Ivanovitch got into the trap
and drove off; the rest of the party hastened homewards
on foot.
But the storm-clouds, turning white and then black,
moved down so quickly that they had to quicken their
pace to get home before the rain. The foremost clouds,
lowering and black as soot-laden smoke, rushed with
extraordinary swiftness over the sky. They were still two
hundred paces from home and a gust of wind had already
blown up, and every second the downpour might be
looked for.
The children ran ahead with frightened and gleeful
shrieks. Darya Alexandrovna, struggling painfully with her
skirts that clung round her legs, was not walking, but
running, her eyes fixed on the children. The men of the
party, holding their hats on, strode with long steps beside
her. They were just at the steps when a big drop fell
splashing on the edge of the iron guttering. The children
and their elders after them ran into the shelter of the
house, talking merrily.

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