Anna Karenina - Part 2

Anna said nothing, and keeping her opera glass up, gazed always

at the same spot.

At that moment a tall general walked through the pavilion.

Breaking off what he was saying, Alexey Alexandrovitch got up

hurriedly, though with dignity, and bowed low to the general.

"You're not racing?" the officer asked, chaffing him.

"My race is a harder one," Alexey Alexandrovitch responded

deferentially.

And though the answer meant nothing, the general looked as though

he had heard a witty remark from a witty man, and fully relished

_la pointe de la sauce_.

"There are two aspects," Alexey Alexandrovitch resumed: "those

who take part and those who look on; and love for such spectacles

is an unmistakable proof of a low degree of development in the

spectator, I admit, but..."

"Princess, bets!" sounded Stepan Arkadyevitch's voice from

below, addressing Betsy. "Who's your favorite?"

"Anna and I are for Kuzovlev," replied Betsy.

"I'm for Vronsky. A pair of gloves?"

"Done!"

"But it is a pretty sight, isn't it?"

Alexey Alexandrovitch paused while there was talking about him,

but he began again directly.

"I admit that manly sports do not..." he was continuing.

But at that moment the racers started, and all conversation

ceased. Alexey Alexandrovitch too was silent, and everyone stood

up and turned towards the stream. Alexey Alexandrovitch took no

interest in the race, and so he did not watch the racers, but

fell listlessly to scanning the spectators with his weary eyes.

His eyes rested upon Anna.

Her face was white and set. She was obviously seeing nothing and

no one but one man. Her hand had convulsively clutched her fan,

and she held her breath. He looked at her and hastily turned

away, scrutinizing other faces.

"But here's this lady too, and others very much moved as well;

it's very natural," Alexey Alexandrovitch told himself. He tried

not to look at her, but unconsciously his eyes were drawn to her.

He examined that face again, trying not to read what was so

plainly written on it, and against his own will, with horror read

on it what he did not want to know.

The first fall--Kuzovlev's, at the stream--agitated everyone,

but Alexey Alexandrovitch saw distinctly on Anna's pale,

triumphant face that the man she was watching had not fallen.

When, after Mahotin and Vronsky had cleared the worst barrier,

the next officer had been thrown straight on his head at it and

fatally injured, and a shudder of horror passed over the whole

public, Alexey Alexandrovitch saw that Anna did not even notice

it, and had some difficulty in realizing what they were talking

of about her. But more and more often, and with greater

persistence, he watched her. Anna, wholly engrossed as she was

with the race, became aware of her husband's cold eyes fixed

upon her from one side.