Chapter 105 — Anna Karenina

Karenin meets Vronsky on his own steps, then drives to the Italian opera as planned and sits through two acts seeing everyone he wished to see. He returns home, studies the hat stand for a military overcoat, finds none, and walks his study until three in the morning. His one rule was broken: Anna received her lover inside his house. Official troubles about native tribes and Zaraisky irrigation already have him irritable; now he resolves to punish her with divorce and take Seryozha.

By morning his fury has multiplied. He enters Anna's room without greeting, takes her keys, and seizes the portfolio where she keeps important papers. He accuses her of hosting her lover, calls her a thief stating facts, and forces her back into her chair when she tries to leave. Anna answers that his cruelty is new and base; he answers that forsaking husband and child for a lover while eating his bread is base. She almost laughs when he stammers "thuffering," then feels a flash of pity she cannot act on.

Karenin announces he leaves for Moscow tomorrow, will not return to this house, and will divorce her through a lawyer. He takes their son to his sister's. Anna begs for Seryozha, then whispers that she will soon be confined. The pregnancy confession meets wordless rage: he snatches his hand away and leaves the room. The marriage breaks in public procedure and private injury at once.