Page 434 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

The great barrier stood just in front of the imperial
pavilion. The Tsar and the whole court and crowds of
people were all gazing at them—at him, and Mahotin a
length ahead of him, as they drew near the ‘devil,’ as the

solid barrier was called. Vronsky was aware of those eyes
fastened upon him from all sides, but he saw nothing
except the ears and neck of his own mare, the ground
racing to meet him, and the back and white legs of
Gladiator beating time swiftly before him, and keeping
always the same distance ahead. Gladiator rose, with no
sound of knocking against anything. With a wave of his
short tail he disappeared from Vronsky’s sight.
‘Bravo!’ cried a voice.
At the same instant, under Vronsky’s eyes, right before
him flashed the palings of the barrier. Without the slightest
change in her action his mare flew over it; the palings
vanished, and he heard only a crash behind him. The
mare, excited by Gladiator’s keeping ahead, had risen too
soon before the barrier, and grazed it with her hind hoofs.
But her pace never changed, and Vronsky, feeling a spatter
of mud in his face, realized that he was once more the
same distance from Gladiator. Once more he perceived in
front of him the same back and short tail, and again the
same swiftly moving white legs that got no further away.

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