A load strapped to the back

Petritsky fetches Vronsky to the C.O.'s house, where the band is playing and Serpukhovskoy is being toasted. Three years have added whiskers and the quiet permanent radiance of a man whose success everyone acknowledges. After the tossing and the dancing and the demonstration of Russia's superiority to Prussia in cavalry charges, the two talk in the dressing-room. Serpukhovskoy admits ambition frankly, argues that Russia needs a party of independent men who cannot be bought, and offers Vronsky carte blanche: leave the regiment and be drawn on imperceptibly. Vronsky says he lacks the wish for power, and is told the present will not last for ever. Then the warning: women are the chief stumbling-block in a career, and a load can only be carried if strapped on the back, which is marriage — men like Mazankov and Krupov ruined themselves, and the better the woman's position the worse, since that is wrenching a load from someone else. 'You have never loved,' says Vronsky. Then Betsy's note arrives and he leaves with a headache.

Tolstoy gives the case against Anna to a sympathetic, intelligent friend and lets it land: the load strapped to the back is crude and Vronsky will spend four parts discovering it was accurate. The chapter's timing is exact — Serpukhovskoy's offer of a career arrives minutes before the note that will end the possibility of one, and Vronsky takes the note.