Anna Karenina (Penguin) - Leo Tolstoy [126]
The first fall - Kuzovlev’s at the stream - upset everyone, but Alexei Alexandrovich saw clearly on Anna’s pale, triumphant face that the one she was watching had not fallen. When, after Makhotin and Vronsky cleared the big barrier, the very next officer fell on his head and knocked himself out, and a rustle of horror passed through all the public, Alexei Alexandrovich saw that Anna did not even notice it and hardly understood what the people around her were talking about. But he peered at her more and more often and with greater persistence. Anna, all absorbed in watching the racing Vronsky, could feel the gaze of her husband’s cold eyes fixed on her from the side.
She turned for an instant, looked at him questioningly, and with a slight frown turned away again.
‘Ah, I don’t care,’ she all but said to him, and never once glanced at him after that.
The race was unlucky: out of seventeen men more than half fell and were injured. Towards the end of the race everyone was in agitation, which was increased still more by the fact that the emperor was displeased.
XXIX
Everyone loudly expressed his disapproval, everyone repeated the phrase someone had uttered: ‘We only lack circuses with lions,’ and horror was felt by all, so that when Vronsky fell and Anna gasped loudly, there was nothing extraordinary in it. But after that a change came over Anna’s face which was positively improper. She was completely at a loss. She started thrashing about like a trapped bird, now wanting to get up and go somewhere, now turning to Betsy.
‘Let’s go, let’s go,’ she kept saying.
But Betsy did not hear her. She was bending forward to talk to a general who had come up to her.
Alexei Alexandrovich approached Anna and courteously offered her his arm.
‘Let us go, if you wish,’ he said in French; but Anna was listening to what the general was saying and ignored her husband.
‘He also broke his leg, they say,’ the general said. ‘It’s quite unheard-of.’
Anna, without answering her husband, raised her binoculars and looked at the place where Vronsky had fallen; but it was so far away, and there were so many people crowding there, that it was impossible to make anything out. She lowered the binoculars and made as if to leave; but just then an officer galloped up and reported something to the emperor. Anna leaned forward, listening.
‘Stiva! Stiva!’ she called out to her brother.
But her brother did not hear her. She again made as if to leave.
‘I once again offer you my arm, if you want to go,’ said Alexei Alexandrovich, touching her arm.
She recoiled from him in revulsion and, without looking at his face, replied:
‘No, no, let me be, I’ll stay.’
She saw now that an officer was running across the track towards the pavilion from the place where Vronsky had fallen. Betsy was waving a handkerchief to him.
The officer brought the news that the rider was unhurt, but the horse had broken her back.
Hearing that, Anna quickly sat down and covered her face with her fan. Alexei Alexandrovich could see that she was weeping and was unable to hold back not only her tears but the sobs that heaved her bosom. Alexei Alexandrovich shielded her, giving her time to recover.
‘For the third time I offer you my arm,’ he said after a short while, addressing her. Anna looked at him and did not know what to say. Princess Betsy came to her aid.
‘No, Alexei Alexandrovich, I brought Anna here and promised to take her back,’ Betsy interfered.
‘Excuse me, Princess,’ he said, smiling courteously but looking her firmly in the eye, ‘but I see that Anna is not quite well, and I wish her to leave with me.’
Anna glanced fearfully at him, obediently stood up and placed her hand on her husband’s arm.
‘I’ll send to him to find out and get word to you,’ Betsy whispered to her.
On the way out of the pavilion, Alexei Alexandrovich, as always, talked with people he met, and Anna also had, as always, to respond and talk; but she was not herself and walked