Vronsky calls but will not enter

Dolly comes out for tea, and from a quarrel about moving Anna downstairs and changing the curtains, Anna reads first uncertainty and then the fact of a full reconciliation, and kisses her, pleased to have brought it about. Dolly keeps her bantering manner; Oblonsky is cheerful without appearing to have forgotten his guilt. At half-past nine, missing the hour when she would be putting Serezha to bed, Anna goes up for her album to show his photograph. The bell rings as she reaches the landing, and looking down under the lamp she recognises Vronsky, feeling pleasure mixed with fear. He looks up, embarrassed and afraid; she bows slightly and goes on. He refuses to come in. Oblonsky reports that he called only to ask about tomorrow's dinner and 'seemed so queer'. Kitty blushes, certain she alone understands. To Anna in particular the visit seems strange and not right.

An entire seduction conducted on a staircase, with one bow and no words. Tolstoy insists on the ordinariness of the visit and then notes that everyone present found it strange, which is how adultery is detected in this novel long before it occurs. Kitty's confident misreading places her one step behind the reader.