Levin arrives among the children

Driving home with her freshly bathed children, Dolly sees Levin on the road and is more than usually glad, since no one understands the dignity of her position better and today he will see her in her glory. He calls her a hen with her chickens. He is confused about admitting that Oblonsky sent him, knowing she dislikes having family business pressed on outsiders, and she likes him for perceiving it. The children take to him at once: they detect no pretence in him, and children detect it however well hidden. He races them, carries Lily on his shoulder, teaches gymnastics and amuses Miss Hull with his broken English. On the verandah after dinner Dolly mentions that Kitty is coming for the summer; Levin flushes, changes the subject to cows, and offers two of his own and a theory that a cow is a machine for turning fodder into milk. Dolly, who has her household working and no confidence in his farming, wants only to talk about her sister.

Children as instrument: Tolstoy uses them here exactly as he used Serezha in Part Two, to register whether an adult is pretending, and Levin passes. The cow-as-machine theory is deployed as evasion and is worse than Matrena Filimonovna's practice of feeding Spotty more, which is the chapter's quiet verdict on Levin's book.