Oblonsky begs Karenin to wait

Karenin spends the morning coaching a deputation from a subject race who naïvely believe their business is to explain their needs and ask for help, and writing out a programme they must not overstep. Then he writes to the lawyer granting full discretion and enclosing three of Vronsky's notes to Anna, found in the confiscated writing-case. Having converted the matter of his life into an affair of ink and paper, he finds it easier to carry out. Oblonsky forces his way past the servant and is told flatly that the family connection must be severed, since Karenin is suing for divorce. Instead of coldness he meets dismay: Oblonsky sits down, says he cannot believe it, calls Anna a splendid woman, begs him not to be in a hurry, and implores him on his bended knees at least to talk it over with Dolly. Karenin gives way and accepts the dinner invitation. They part on the subject of Count Anichkin, whom Karenin dislikes and Oblonsky has taught to make wine with oranges.

Ink and paper is the phrase that explains Karenin: what he cannot face he can file, and the divorce becomes possible the moment it becomes correspondence. Oblonsky's shapeless kindness, which judges nobody and refuses to let a relationship end, defeats a decision three chapters in the making. The deputation coached not to say the true thing sits in the same morning as the letter enclosing his wife's love notes.