Alexei Alexandrovich returned from the ministry at four o‘clock, but, as often happened, had no time to go to her room. He proceeded to his study to receive the waiting petitioners and sign some papers brought by the office manager. At dinner (three or four people always dined with the Karenins) there were Alexei Alexandrovich’s elderly female cousin, the department director and his wife and a young man recommended to Alexei Alexandrovich at work. Anna came out to the drawing room to entertain them. At exactly five o’clock, before the Peter-the-Great bronze clock struck for the fifth time, Alexei Alexandrovich came out in a white tie and a tailcoat with two stars, because he had to leave right after dinner. Every minute of Alexei Alexandrovich’s life was occupied and scheduled. And in order to have time to do what he had to do each day, he held to the strictest punctuality. ‘Without haste and without rest’ was his motto. He entered the room, bowed to everyone, and hastily sat down, smiling at his wife.
‘Yes, my solitude is ended. You wouldn’t believe how awkward’ (he emphasized the word
Over dinner he talked with his wife about Moscow affairs, asked with a mocking smile about Stepan Arkadyich; but the conversation was mainly general, about Petersburg administrative and social affairs. After dinner he spent half an hour with his guests and, again pressing his wife’s hand with a smile, left and went to the Council. This time Anna went neither to see Princess Betsy Tverskoy, who, on learning of her return, had invited her for the evening, nor to the theatre, where she had a box for that night. She did not go mainly because the dress she had counted on was not ready. Having turned to her toilette after her guests’ departure, Anna was very annoyed. Before leaving for Moscow, she, who was generally an expert at dressing not very expensively, had given her dressmaker three dresses to be altered. The dresses needed to be altered so that they could not be recognized, and they were to have been ready three days ago. It turned out that two of the dresses were not ready at all, and the third had not been altered in the way Anna wanted. The dressmaker came and explained that it was better as she had done it, and Anna got so upset that afterwards she was ashamed to remember it. To calm herself completely, she went to the nursery and spent the whole evening with her son, put him to bed herself, made a cross over him and covered him with a blanket. She was glad that she had not gone anywhere and had spent the evening so well. She felt light and calm. She saw clearly that everything that had seemed so important to her on the train was merely one of the ordinary, insignificant episodes of social life, and there was nothing to be ashamed of before others or herself. Anna sat by the fireplace with her English novel and waited for her husband. At exactly half-past nine the bell rang, and he came into the room.
‘It’s you at last!’ she said, giving him her hand.
He kissed her hand and sat down beside her.
‘Generally, I see your trip was a success,’ he said to her.
‘Yes, very,’ she replied, and started telling him everything from the beginning: her journey with Mme Vronsky, her arrival, the accident at the railway station. Then she told of the pity she had felt, first for her brother, then for Dolly.
‘I don’t suppose one can possibly excuse such a man, though he is your brother,’ Alexei Alexandrovich said sternly.
Anna smiled. She understood that he had said it precisely to show that considerations of kinship could not keep him from expressing his sincere opinion. She knew this feature in her husband and liked it.
‘I’m glad it all ended satisfactorily and that you’ve come back,’ he continued. ‘Well, what are they saying there about the new statute I passed in the Council?’
Anna had heard nothing about this statute, and felt ashamed that she could so easily forget something so important for him.
‘Here, on the contrary, it caused a good deal of stir,’ he said with a self-satisfied smile.
She could see that Alexei Alexandrovich wanted to tell her something that pleased him about this matter, and by her questions she led him to telling it. With the same self-satisfied smile, he told her about an ovation he had received as a result of the passing of this statute.
‘I was very, very glad. This proves that a reasonable and firm view of the matter is finally being established among us.’
Having finished his bread and a second glass of tea with cream, Alexei Alexandrovich got up and went to his study.
‘And you didn’t go out anywhere - it must have been boring for you?’ he said.
‘Oh, no!’ she replied, getting up after him and accompanying him across the drawing room to his study. ‘What are you reading now?’ she asked.
‘I’m now reading the Duc de Lille,
