Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART TWO CHAPTER 25
“O the darling!” thought Vronsky.
After crossing the stream Vronsky had complete control of his mare, and began
holding her in, intending to cross the great barrier behind Mahotin, and to try to
overtake him in the clear ground of about five hundred yards that followed it.
The great barrier stood just in front of the imperial pavilion. The Tsar and the
whole court and crowds of people were all gazing at them–at him, and Mahotin a
length ahead of him, as they drew near the “devil,” as the solid barrier was called.
Vronsky was aware of those eyes fastened upon him from all sides, but he saw nothing
except the ears and neck of his own mare, the ground racing to meet him, and
the back and white legs of Gladiator beating time swiftly before him, and keeping
always the same distance ahead. Gladiator rose, with no sound of knocking against
anything. With a wave of his short tail he disappeared from Vronsky’s sight.
“Bravo!” cried a voice.
At the same instant, under Vronsky’s eyes, right before him flashed the palings
of the barrier. Without the slightest change in her action his mare flew over it; the
palings vanished, and he heard only a crash behind him. The mare, excited by Gladiator’s
keeping ahead, had risen too soon before the barrier, and grazed it with her
hind hoofs. But her pace never changed, and Vronsky, feeling a spatter of mud in his
face, realized that he was once more the same distance from Gladiator. Once more
he perceived in front of him the same back and short tail, and again the same swiftly
moving white legs that got no further away.
At the very moment when Vronsky thought that now was the time to overtake
Mahotin, Frou-Frou herself, understanding his thoughts, without any incitement on
his part, gained ground considerably, and began getting alongside of Mahotin on
the most favorable side, close to the inner cord. Mahotin would not let her pass
that side. Vronsky had hardly formed the thought that he could perhaps pass on the
outer side, when Frou-Frou shifted her pace and began overtaking him on the other
side. Frou-Frou’s shoulder, beginning by now to be dark with sweat, was even with
Gladiator’s back. For a few lengths they moved evenly. But before the obstacle they
were approaching, Vronsky began working at the reins, anxious to avoid having to
take the outer circle, and swiftly passed Mahotin just upon the declivity. He caught
a glimpse of his mud-stained face as he flashed by. He even fancied that he smiled.
Vronsky passed Mahotin, but he was immediately aware of him close upon him, and
he never ceased hearing the even-thudding hoofs and the rapid and still quite fresh
breathing of Gladiator.
The next two obstacles, the water course and the barrier, were easily crossed, but
Vronsky began to hear the snorting and thud of Gladiator closer upon him. He urged
on his mare, and to his delight felt that she easily quickened her pace, and the thud
of Gladiator’s hoofs was again heard at the same distance away.
Vronsky was at the head of the race, just as he wanted to be and as Cord had advised,
and now he felt sure of being the winner. His excitement, his delight, and his
tenderness for Frou-Frou grew keener and keener. He longed to look round again,
but he did not dare do this, and tried to be cool and not to urge on his mare so to
keep the same reserve of force in her as he felt that Gladiator still kept. There remained
only one obstacle, the most difficult; if he could cross it ahead of the others
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