Chapter 114 — Anna Karenina

Levin wants to follow Kitty but stays with the men, feeling her presence without looking. He keeps his promise to think well of everyone, reconciling commune talk he no longer cares about because only Kitty matters. When she appears in the doorway he joins her; they agree arguments rarely convince anyone.

She guesses his thought about finding what an opponent values; their wordless understanding delights him. At the card table they discuss women's duties; a blush and hint make him abandon Pestsov's liberty arguments when he glimpses the humiliation of an old maid's life in her eyes.

He writes initial letters asking whether her never meant never or then. She deciphers, changes never to then, answers yes to marriage. He writes that he never ceased to love her; she answers yes again. The old prince calls them secretaries and sends them to the theater; everything is said and Levin will come tomorrow to her parents.

The initial-letter courtship at the card table lets Levin and Kitty say everything without speaking aloud. Her change from never to then answers the question that has tortured him since the ball; the old prince sends them to the theater as though nothing momentous has happened.