Karenin sets his one condition

At Monday's Committee of the Second of July, Karenin speaks without notes, fixing his eyes on a harmless old man opposite, and raises a storm: his opponent jumps up at the Fundamental and Organic Law, Stremov defends himself, the president has to call for order, and Karenin's motion carries with three new Special Committees. Tuesday morning he is enjoying the reports of his triumph and has forgotten that this is the day Anna returns. He does not come out to meet her, stays with his secretary, and lets an hour pass. She goes to his study and finds him in uniform, elbows on a table, thinking about her. He tells her he is glad she came, cannot begin, and asks whether Serezha is well. She says she is a guilty woman and cannot change. He answers that he expected it, will not know it, ignores it while his name is undishonoured, and requires only that she not receive that person here nor be compromised: in return she keeps a wife's advantages without a wife's duties. Then he leaves for the day.

Tolstoy gives Karenin a public victory the day before the private interview so the reader can see where his powers work. He flushes, falters, asks about the boy — and recovers the moment he is angry, which is the tragedy of him in one movement. The terms he sets are the sentence Anna will serve until Part Four, and they are delivered standing, on the way out.