When Princess Betsy’s guests arrive, her conversation with Anna Karenina is interrupted.  Sappho Shtoltz is a “blond beauty with black eyes,” followed everywhere by Vaska, her ardent admirer. Sappho Shtoltz’s hairdo is a "superstructure of soft, golden hair—her own and false mixed," and her bust is overexposed. She is so bustled and corseted that it is difficult to tell where the petite woman’s actual body might be under all the flowing material. Princess Betsy quickly introduces her to Anna Karenina.

Sappho Shtoltz and Vaska are teasing one another when the woman suddenly remembers that she invited another of her admirers to the croquet party and introduces him to her hostess. This man, too, follows Sappho Shtoltz everywhere she goes. Soon after, the other two guests arrive. Liza Merkalova is a thin, Oriental-looking woman with “exquisite enigmatic eyes.” Her style harmonizes perfectly with her beauty, and Anna Karenina finds her much more attractive than Sappho Shtoltz. This is the woman Princess Betsy described as feigning innocence, but Anna Karenina does not agree.

Liza Merkalova, Anna Karenina knows, may seem like the same sort of woman as Sappho Shtoltz, each of them with a young man and an old man following doggedly after them; however, when people look into Liza Merkalova’s eyes, they cannot help but love her. When she sees Anna Karenina, those passionate eyes light up with delight. Liza Merkalova explains that she had tried to find Anna Karenina after the races and was dismayed to have missed her.

When the others leave for the garden to play croquet, Liza Merkalova settles next to Anna Karenina and says she will stay with her, for she is bored. She wonders how the older woman cannot be bored. It is always the same people doing the same things at the same places. She says Anna Karenina looks as if she might be happy or unhappy but does not look bored. A blushing Anna Karenina says she does nothing special to avoid boredom.

One of the men with Liza Merkalova, Stremov, is older, quite ugly but obviously intelligent. Liza Merkalova is his wife’s niece, and he spends all his free time with her. A political enemy of Alexey Alexandrovitch, Stremov shrewdly tries to be cordial with Anna Karenina, approving of her method of avoiding boredom. He agrees that being bored is a choice, and if one does not wish to be bored, one must choose not to be bored. He continues making small talk with Anna Karenina when they are interrupted by the announcement that the party is waiting on them to begin playing croquet.

When Anna Karenina tries to leave the party, both Liza Merkalova and Stremov attempt to convince her to stay; feeling flattered by their attention, she is now unsure whether she should stay or head immediately to Madame Vrede’s to meet Vronsky. Once she remembers what will happen to her at home if she does not come to some decision—a terrible fate—Anna Karenina says good-bye and leaves.