The Shcherbatsky element at Pokrovsk

Dolly and her children spend the summer at Pokrovsk, her own house being dilapidated, and Oblonsky stays in Moscow regretting that his duties prevent him joining them. With the old Princess come to watch over Kitty in her condition, and Varenka keeping her promise, the house is full of what Levin calls the Shcherbatsky element, and his own Levin world is submerged; the only relative of his to come is Koznyshev, who is a Koznyshev and not a Levin. The Princess counts heads before every meal and sends a grandchild to the side-table if there are thirteen, and Kitty scours the district for chickens, turkeys and ducks. At dinner the talk is of hunting mushrooms, and Koznyshev astonishes everyone by asking to be taken along, with a glance at Varenka; Kitty and Dolly exchange looks. Tanya brings him his hat at a sideways gallop, Varenka waits in the doorway in a yellow print dress, and Kitty kisses her and whispers that she will be very happy if a certain thing comes to pass. Levin goes only as far as the threshing-floor, to count waggons.

Part Six opens on a full house and a man quietly resenting it, which is Tolstoy's way of noting that Levin's happiness has a price and that he is counting it. The mushroom expedition is set up by three women in the space of one dinner. Kitty's whispered blessing commits the reader to an outcome the next chapters will withhold.