Vronsky and Kitty waltz around the room several times and Kitty barely has time to visit with friends before he is back for their quadrille. Their conversation is inconsequential and rather stilted, but Kitty is not dismayed and has put all her hopes on the mazurka, assuming they will dance together as always and turning down five other young men in anticipation of Vronsky’s invitation. During this dance, she imagines everything will be decided.

As Kitty watches Anna Karenina, she sees an intoxication which she recognizes from her own experience, a euphoria and deliberate precision which is feeding on admiration. What she does not know is if it is the admiration of the crowd or of one in particular, and as the evening progresses she realizes it is the latter—and she begins to wonder if it Vronsky who is the cause. Kitty watches her new friend try not to show signs of delight when he speaks to her, but her joy cannot be controlled and radiates anyway. And on his face is a look Kitty has never before seen; he looks at Anna Karenina as if to tell her he does not want to offend her but he wants to save himself and does not know how.

The two talk near Kitty and their conversation is innocuous; yet for Kitty the entire world, her soul, seems “lost in a fog.” Only her stern and disciplined upbringing enables her to act outwardly as if everything is normal; however, as the room is being rearranged for the mazurka, Kitty is horrified to realize that she is without a partner. She must tell her mother she is feeling ill, but she cannot even muster the strength to do that. Kitty is crushed and sinks into a chair at the furthest end of the drawing room where she fans her burning face. Her heart aches with a “horrible despair.”

Countess Nordston comes to her and tells her she overheard Vronsky asking Anna Karenina for the mazurka; she asked him why he was not going to dance with Princess Shtcherbatsky. Kitty does not want to hear it but is persuaded to dance again by the director of the ball. During the complex dance, she sees that her suspicions are correct and, as she looks at Anna Karenina, she is still fascinated by her.

When Kitty and Vronsky meet one another during a complicated figure of the dance, he barely recognizes her and they have virtually nothing to say. When Anna Karenina and Kitty meet during the dance, the older woman sees the look of despair and amazement in the young girl’s face and quickly begins talking to someone else. Kitty again thinks there is something devilish, uncanny, and fascinating about the woman.

Anna Karenina will not stay for supper, saying she has already danced more tonight than she has all winter in St. Petersburg. Vronsky asks if she is for sure leaving tomorrow, and she tells him she supposes so even as she wonders at his boldness. The brilliance of her eyes and her smile set Vronsky on fire as she says it. Anna Karenina goes home.