At this moment Stepan came up and took Levin’s arm, and the two went to the restaurant.  Here Levin opened his soul to Stepan, and Stepan assured him that Kitty would become his wife.  “But,” said Levin, “it is shocking that we who are already getting old dare not approach a pure and innocent being.  I look on my life with dismay, and mourn over it bitterly.”

Said Stepan, “You have not much cause for self-reproach.  What can you do?  The world is thus constituted.”

“There is only one comfort,” replied Levin.  “That is in the prayer I have always delighted in:  ’Pardon me not according to my deserts, but according to Thy loving kindness.’  Thus only can she forgive me.”

IV

Kitty had another suitor, Count Vronsky, on whom she looked with the favour that she could not accord to Levin.  He was rich, intelligent, of good birth, with a brilliant career before him in court and navy.  He was charming, and in him the Princess Shcherbatsky saw an admirable match for her youngest daughter.  Princess Kitty was now eighteen.  She was the favourite child of her father.  It was manifest to both parents that she was in love with Vronsky.  Yet when at length Levin ventured on an actual declaration of his love, she was deeply agitated.  Lifting her sincere glance to him, she said hastily, “This cannot be.  Forgive me.”

Anna Karenina arrived in the home of Stepan Arkadyevitch, where she was received with cordial kisses by Dolly, who remembered that Stepan’s sister was not to blame, and that she was a grande dame of St. Petersburg, wife of one of the important personages of the city.  She was delighted to think that at last she could open her mind and tell her troubles.  And she was not disappointed, for in a lengthy and sympathetic colloquy Dolly’s heart was touched with the sentiment of forgiveness.

Anna was one of the most beautiful and graceful of women.  And she was as tactful as she was lovely.  Before many hours she had successfully played the part of peacemaker, and thanked God in her heart that she had been able to effect complete reconciliation between Stepan and his wife.  That same evening Anna went to a grand ball with Kitty and her mother, where the three were quickly saluted by Vronsky.  It was a most brilliant affair.  But next morning Anna telegraphed to her husband that she was leaving Moscow for home.  It happened that Vronsky travelled by the same train, and thus the two were thrown together for the long journey.

V

Aleksei Alexandrovitch, though he affectionately met his wife, found but little time to spend with her.  The next day several visitors came to dine with the Karenins.  Every moment of Aleksei’s life was fully occupied with his official duties, and he was forced to be strictly regular and punctual in his arrangements.  He was an excellent man, and an intellectual one, delighting in art, poetry, and music, and loving to talk of Shakespeare, Raphael, and Beethoven.