Anna tells Vronsky it must stop

Anna arrives at Betsy's and the room talks about marriages founded on reason, love as a scarlet fever one must get over, and whether love can be inoculated; Anna answers that there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts, and Vronsky breathes again. She tells him Kitty Shcherbatskaya is very ill, and when he frowns she says men do not understand honour: he has behaved badly, very badly. He answers that she knows who caused it. She says she came tonight on purpose to tell him this must stop, that she has never had to blush before anyone until now, and asks him to go to Moscow and beg Kitty's pardon. He replies that she does not want that, that she is all his life to him, and that he can offer despair or happiness but not peace. She fixes her eyes on him, full of love, and says nothing. The room notices. Karenin arrives, argues about universal military service, and goes home alone.

A refusal that functions as a surrender, and Tolstoy marks each step: the word 'forbade' granting rights, the eyes contradicting the mouth, the confession that the word love means too much. The drawing-room's chatter about inoculating passion frames it. Everyone present sees what is happening except the husband, who is busy defending a law.