Chapter 154 — Anna Karenina

Vassily Lukitch opens the nursery door, hears mother and child, and closes it again. I'll wait another ten minutes, he tells himself, wiping tears. Downstairs the household knows the mistress is inside and that their master always went in person to the nursery at nine o'clock; Korney scolds Kapitonitch while the nurse runs to get Anna away.

In the nursery Seryozha talks of sledding; Anna hears only that she must leave. The nurse weeps over her; Seryozha glows until he sees dread and shame on Anna's face. She calls him darling Kootik and cannot say goodbye. He whispers don't go yet; he knows parents cannot meet. She tells him love him; he's better and kinder than I am. He sobs: There's no one better than you!

Footsteps come. Anna kisses Seryozha and rushes out. She meets Karenin in the hallway; despite her words to the boy, one glance fills her with repulsion and hatred. She drops her veil and flees, still carrying the toys she never gave him.

Vassily Lukitch's tears and Korney's scolding frame the theft of minutes Anna bought with bribes. Tolstoy keeps Karenin offstage until the hallway collision, so the child's love and the mother's flight land as separate catastrophes in one morning.