The Locksmiths' Association, and vodka

Nicholas points to a bundle of iron rods: the beginning of a Locksmiths' Association at Vozdrema in the Kazan Government, where products, profits and instruments of production will be common property. Levin listens badly, seeing the hectic flush on his brother's consumptive face and understanding that the scheme is an anchor against self-contempt. His mild question about siting it in a village sets Nicholas off against aristocratic outlooks and against Sergius Ivanich, until he is shouting at his brother to go. Kritsky leaves. Alone with Mary Nikolavna, Levin learns Nicholas drinks vodka and drinks too much; Nicholas returns and accuses them both. Then, softened by drink and food, he asks about Pokrovsk — the birch trees, the school-room, Philip the gardener — and tells Levin to change nothing and marry soon. He says he fears death terribly. Levin gets him to bed tipsy; Masha promises to write if she is needed.

Nicholas states the novel's other great fear — of dying — three pages after Levin put the same question to a professor and got a refusal. The brothers hold the same terror and only one of them is permitted to be frightened aloud. Tolstoy gives the dying man the accurate reading of Mary Nikolavna, which nobody else in the room can manage.