Page:Anna Karenina.djvu/819

 Behind them rode Vronsky on a dark chestnut horse of purest blood, which was evidently spoiling for a gallop. He was sawing on the reins to hold him back. Behind them came a little man in a jockey's livery. Sviazhsky and the princess in a new char à bancs, drawn by a plump raven-black trotter, brought up the rear.

Anna's face, as she recognized Dolly in the little person curled up in a corner of the old carriage, suddenly grew bright with a happy smile, and, uttering a cry of joy, she put her cob to a gallop. Riding up to the calash, she leaped off the horse without any one's aid, and, gathering up her skirts, ran to meet her.

"I thought so, and did not dare to think so! What pleasure! you can't imagine my joy," she said, pressing her face to Dolly's, kissing her, and then holding her off at arm's length and looking at her with an affectionate smile. "What a pleasure, Alekseï," she said, glancing at Vronsky, who had also dismounted, and was coming toward them, "what a piece of good fortune!"

Vronsky came up, raising his tall gray hat. "You can't imagine what delight your visit gives us," said he, in a tone which conveyed a peculiar satisfaction, and with a smile which displayed his strong white teeth,

Vasenka, without dismounting from his horse, took off his beribboned cap, and waved it gayly round his head, in honor of the guest.

"This is the Princess Varvara," began Anna, in reply to a questioning look of Dolly as the char à bancs came up.

"Ah!" replied Darya Aleksandrovna, and her face showed involuntary annoyance.

The Princess Varvara was her husband's aunt, and she knew her of old, and did not esteem her. She knew that she had lived all her life long in a humiliating dependence on rich relatives; and the fact that she was living at Vronsky's, at the house of a stranger to her, insulted her through her husband's family. Anna noticed the expression of Dolly's face, and was confused; she blushed, and, dropping the train of her amazonka, she tripped over it.