Chapter 153 — Anna Karenina

Anna returned to Russia chiefly to see her son. Since Italy the thought never left her; near Petersburg the meeting grew huge in her imagination. Arrival showed how hard arrangement would be. Two days pass without Seryozha while she fears Karenin's house, refuses writing her husband, and searches for the old nurse.

On the third day she writes Lydia Ivanovna, saying permission depends on Karenin's generosity. The messenger returns with cruel news: there was no answer. Summoning him again for details humiliates her more deeply than she expected. She cannot share this with Vronsky, fearing his cool tone more than the rejection, and suffers alone until Lydia's follow-up letter exasperates her. Not on any consideration! she decides; next day, Seryozha's birthday, she will bribe servants and reach him.

She buys toys and plans a godfather cover story. At eight o'clock Kapitonitch recognizes her beneath the veil and lets her up. A child's yawn tells her Seryozha is near. He rolls into her arms; Mother! They embrace through sleepy joy. He says it is his birthday and I knew, I knew! He never believed she was dead.

The unchanged hall and Kapitonitch's silent bow show how exile has not erased domestic memory; Tolstoy holds the reunion before the household panic that will end it in the next chapter.