Chapter 33 — Anna Karenina

Karenin returns at four, skips Anna for petitions and papers, then appears at five in stars and white tie for a dinner with cousins, officials, and a protégé. "Unhasting and unresting" governs every minute; he jokes that dining alone was uncomfortable, touches Moscow lightly with sarcasm about Stiva, and leaves for the council after half an hour with guests. Anna stays home because her remodeled dress is not ready; fury at the dressmaker sends her to the nursery instead, where putting Seryozha to bed restores serenity. She decides the railway drama was a trivial fashionable incident with nothing to be ashamed of.

At half-past nine Karenin returns; she recounts the journey with Countess Vronskaya, the station accident, pity for Stiva and Dolly, while he condemns her brother and boasts of his new council act she had forgotten. She draws out his ovations, escorts him to the study knowing his dutiful evening reading of politics and art, smiles at his classified opinions on Shakespeare and Beethoven, and writes to Dolly.

At midnight he says "It's time" with a meaning smile and goes to their bedroom. Undressing, she recalls Vronsky's glance at Karenin and wonders what right he had; the eagerness that flashed in Moscow is gone, fire hidden somewhere far away behind a face that performs normal marriage.