The coachman started the horses, but they were only just turning
off when the peasant shouted: "Stop! Hi, friend! Stop!" called
the two voices. The coachman stopped.
"They're coming! They're yonder!" shouted the peasant. "See
what a turn-out!" he said, pointing to four persons on horseback,
and two in a _char-à-banc_, coming along the road.
They were Vronsky with a jockey, Veslovsky and Anna on horseback,
and Princess Varvara and Sviazhsky in the _char-à-banc_. They had
gone out to look at the working of a new reaping machine.
When the carriage stopped, the party on horseback were coming at
a walking pace. Anna was in front beside Veslovsky. Anna,
quietly walking her horse, a sturdy English cob with cropped mane
and short tail, her beautiful head with her black hair straying
loose under her high hat, her full shoulders, her slender waist
in her black riding habit, and all the ease and grace of her
deportment, impressed Dolly.
For the first minute it seemed to her unsuitable for Anna to be
on horseback. The conception of riding on horseback for a lady
was, in Darya Alexandrovna's mind, associated with ideas of
youthful flirtation and frivolity, which, in her opinion, was
unbecoming in Anna's position. But when she had scrutinized her,
seeing her closer, she was at once reconciled to her riding. In
spite of her elegance, everything was so simple, quiet, and
dignified in the attitude, the dress and the movements of Anna,
that nothing could have been more natural.
Beside Anna, on a hot-looking gray cavalry horse, was Vassenka
Veslovsky in his Scotch cap with floating ribbons, his stout
legs stretched out in front, obviously pleased with his own
appearance. Darya Alexandrovna could not suppress a good-humored
smile as she recognized him. Behind rode Vronsky on a dark bay
mare, obviously heated from galloping. He was holding her in,
pulling at the reins.
After him rode a little man in the dress of a jockey. Sviazhsky
and Princess Varvara in a new _char-à-banc_ with a big, raven-black
trotting horse, overtook the party on horseback.
Anna's face suddenly beamed with a joyful smile at the instant
when, in the little figure huddled in a corner of the old
carriage, she recognized Dolly. She uttered a cry, started in
the saddle, and set her horse into a gallop. On reaching the
carriage she jumped off without assistance, and holding up her
riding habit, she ran up to greet Dolly.
"I thought it was you and dared not think it. How delightful!
You can't fancy how glad I am!" she said, at one moment pressing
her face against Dolly and kissing her, and at the next holding
her off and examining her with a smile.