Page 463 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

fallen; but it was so far off, and there was such a crowd of
people about it, that she could make out nothing. She laid
down the opera glass, and would have moved away, but at
that moment an officer galloped up and made some

announcement to the Tsar. Anna craned forward,
listening.
‘Stiva! Stiva!’ she cried to her brother.
But her brother did not hear her. Again she would
have moved away.
‘Once more I offer you my arm if you want to be
going,’ said Alexey Alexandrovitch, reaching towards her
hand.
She drew back from him with aversion, and without
looking in his face answered:
‘No, no, let me be, I’ll stay.’
She saw now that from the place of Vronsky’s accident
an officer was running across the course towards the
pavilion. Betsy waved her handkerchief to him. The
officer brought the news that the rider was not killed, but
the horse had broken its back.
On hearing this Anna sat down hurriedly, and hid her
face in her fan. Alexey Alexandrovitch saw that she was
weeping, and could not control her tears, nor even the
sobs that were shaking her bosom. Alexey Alexandrovitch

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