Page 437 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘Bravo, Vronsky!’ he heard shouts from a knot of
men—he knew they were his friends in the regiment—
who were standing at the obstacle. He could not fail to
recognize Yashvin’s voice though he did not see him.

‘O my sweet!’ he said inwardly to Frou-Frou, as he
listened for what was happening behind. ‘He’s cleared it!’
he thought, catching the thud of Gladiator’s hoofs behind
him. There remained only the last ditch, filled with water
and five feet wide. Vronsky did not even look at it, but
anxious to get in a long way first began sawing away at the
reins, lifting the mare’s head and letting it go in time with
her paces. He felt that the mare was at her very last reserve
of strength; not her neck and shoulders merely were wet,
but the sweat was standing in drops on her mane, her
head, her sharp ears, and her breath came in short, sharp
gasps. But he knew that she had strength left more than
enough for the remaining five hundred yards. It was only
from feeling himself nearer the ground and from the
peculiar smoothness of his motion that Vronsky knew
how greatly the mare had quickened her pace. She flew
over the ditch as though not noticing it. She flew over it
like a bird; but at the same instant Vronsky, to his horror,
felt that he had failed to keep up with the mare’s pace, that
he had, he did not know how, made a fearful,

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