The drive to Dolly's

The drizzle has cleared and everything shines in the May sunshine at three o'clock. Rocking along behind the pair of greys, Anna sees her position differently: death is no longer inevitable, and what shames her is having entreated him to forgive her. Her mind runs over signboards — a dental surgeon, Filippov's bakery, dressmaking and millinery — the wells at Mytishchi, her visit to the Troitsa Monastery at seventeen with red hands, Annushka's husband whom Vronsky called 'our parasite', three boys playing at horses and so Serezha. At the Oblonskys' she learns Kitty is there, and thinks Vronsky regrets not having married her. Dolly reports Stiva's letter saying he cannot understand what Karenin wants but will not leave without an answer; Anna says she has no hope and does not desire it. Believing Kitty is hiding from her, she waits, then greets her coldly, says she is changed, and mentions that Levin called on her and she liked him very much, asking to be remembered to him. She leaves after kissing Dolly. Kitty finds her charming and terribly pathetic; Dolly thought she was about to cry in the ante-room.

The carriage ride is the first long stretch of the stream of impressions Tolstoy will use for the rest of the part: signboards, a bakery, a childhood monastery, all arriving with the same weight as her ruin. The visit gives Anna and Kitty their last meeting and lets Anna wound with Levin's name. Dolly and Kitty see something wrong and can only call it pathetic.