Page 402 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

and again began restlessly stamping one after the other her
shapely legs.
‘Quiet, darling, quiet!’ he said, patting her again over
her hind-quarters; and with a glad sense that his mare was

in the best possible condition, he went out of the horse-
box.
The mare’s excitement had infected Vronsky. He felt
that his heart was throbbing, and that he, too, like the
mare, longed to move, to bite; it was both dreadful and
delicious.
‘Well, I rely on you, then,’ he said to the Englishman;
‘half-past six on the ground.’
‘All right,’ said the Englishman. ‘Oh, where are you
going, my lord?’ he asked suddenly, using the title ‘my
lord,’ which he had scarcely ever used before.
Vronsky in amazement raised his head, and stared, as he
knew how to stare, not into the Englishman’s eyes, but at
his forehead, astounded at the impertinence of his
question. But realizing that in asking this the Englishman
had been looking at him not as an employer, but as a
jockey, he answered:
‘I’ve got to go to Bryansky’s; I shall be home within an
hour.’

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