Page 420 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Chapter 24

When Vronsky looked at his watch on the Karenins’
balcony, he was so greatly agitated and lost in his thoughts
that he saw the figures on the watch’s face, but could not
take in what time it was. He came out on to the highroad
and walked, picking his way carefully through the mud, to
his carriage. He was so completely absorbed in his feeling
for Anna, that he did not even think what o’clock it was,
and whether he had time to go to Bryansky’s. He had left
him, as often happens, only the external faculty of
memory, that points out each step one has to take, one
after the other. He went up to his coachman, who was
dozing on the box in the shadow, already lengthening, of
a thick limetree; he admired the shifting clouds of midges
circling over the hot horses, and, waking the coachman,
he jumped into the carriage, and told him to drive to
Bryansky’s. It was only after driving nearly five miles that
he had sufficiently recovered himself to look at his watch,
and realize that it was half-past five, and he was late.
There were several races fixed for that day: the
Mounted Guards’ race, then the officers’ mile-and-a-half
race, then the three-mile race, and then the race~for

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