Chapter 101 — Anna Karenina

Nikolay's overnight gentleness vanishes. By morning he is irritable, hunting faults in Levin's tenderest points. Levin blames himself yet cannot speak the truth both already know: you are dying, and I am afraid. Instead he performs the polite speech others manage easily, and Nikolay hears the false ring and grows exasperated. Levin's old rule proves itself again: excessive meekness in the sick often turns into touchiness you cannot endure.

On the third day Nikolay makes Levin explain his land plan once more, then attacks it as stolen communism and empty vanity. The quarrel peaks when Nikolay says he is going to the devil and will not be soothed. Only at parting does sincerity break through: do not remember evil against me, Kostya, with a quivering voice. Levin weeps; they may not see each other again. Three days later he leaves for his foreign tour.

On the train he meets Kitty's cousin and answers flatly that there is not much happiness in life and that it is time he was dead. Death colors everything, yet his reform scheme grips him harder: life must be got through until the end, and work is the one clue in the darkness. Part Three closes; Part Four begins with the Karenins living as strangers under one roof.