Everyone was loudly expressing disapprobation, everyone was

repeating a phrase some one had uttered--"The lions and

gladiators will be the next thing," and everyone was feeling

horrified; so that when Vronsky fell to the ground, and Anna

moaned aloud, there was nothing very out of the way in it. But

afterwards a change came over Anna's face which really was beyond

decorum. She utterly lost her head. She began fluttering like a

caged bird, at one moment would have got up and moved away, at

the next turned to Betsy.

"Let us go, let us go!" she said.

But Betsy did not hear her. She was bending down, talking to a

general who had come up to her.

Alexey Alexandrovitch went up to Anna and courteously offered her

his arm.

"Let us go, if you like," he said in French, but Anna was

listening to the general and did not notice her husband.

"He's broken his leg too, so they say," the general was saying.

"This is beyond everything."

Without answering her husband, Anna lifted her opera glass and

gazed towards the place where Vronsky had 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 stood so as to screen her, giving

her time to recover herself.

"For the third time I offer you my arm," he said to her after a

little time, turning to her. Anna gazed at him and did not know

what to say. Princess Betsy came to her rescue.




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