The palazzo, and Golenishchev

Three months of Venice, Rome and Naples have brought Anna and Vronsky to a small Italian town where they have taken a palazzo. In the hotel entrance Vronsky, wiping his forehead and brushing his hair forward over the bald patch, meets Golenishchev, a fellow-student from the Corps des Pages whose Liberal contempt once made their last meeting cold. Both brighten; Vronsky, without admitting how bored he is, is delighted. He names Anna in French while watching the other's face, and concludes he takes the matter the right way — which, examined, means only behaving as well-bred people do about unanswerable problems: pretending to understand and countenance everything and considering explanation out of place. Anna blushes, calls Vronsky simply Alexis, and mentions their house, and Golenishchev is charmed by her simplicity and thinks he understands her. Then, asked about his work, he expounds the second part of Two Principles with a flashing, agitated, almost distressed warmth against imaginary opponents. Anna revives him with talk of art, and mentions that Alexis paints.

Tolstoy defines the 'right way' of understanding Anna's position and finds nothing inside it but good manners — the tolerance the couple depend on abroad is agreement not to look. Anna's glance at the door, checking what attitude she should take, shows the watchfulness already installed. Golenishchev's agitation over his book is placed here as a warning about work undertaken to fill a life.