The second field is mown. The happy workers begin walking home as Levin rides back to his manor, the sound of rough good humor, laughter, and clanking scythes still ringing in his ears. At the manor, Sergey Ivanovitch has already finished his dinner; when Levin arrives in all his enthusiasm, his brother reacts only to the filth and grime of a day spent in the fields.

Levin is in such good humor that even his brother’s grumbling about the dirt and the flies he is letting into the house cannot ruin his mood. Levin goes to wash and change, and then the two men meet in the dining room. Although Levin is not hungry, he sits down to eat because he does not want to offend his cook. He finds the food especially delicious and eats heartily as Sergey Ivanovitch watches him with a smile.

Sergey Ivanovitch gives his brother a letter from Stepan Arkadyevitch which came in the day's mail, a letter in which he asks Levin to visit his wife, Darya Alexandrovna, who is at Ergushovo where everything seems to be going wrong. Stepan Arkadyevitch asks Levin to go see her and offer his advice; she is all alone since her mother is still abroad.

Levin is happy at the thought of going to see Darya Alexandrovna and asks Sergey Ivanovitch to join him. Since Ergushovo is only twenty-five miles away and the roads are “capital,” his brother agrees to join Levin for the visit. The younger man’s enthusiasm and energy are contagious, and Sergey Ivanovitch is in a good humor. He tells Levin he intended to go to the meadow today to see how the work was going, but he went just a little way before the heat made him uncomfortable, and he returned home. As he came home past the village, he spoke with the injured housekeeper about the peasants’ view of a working nobleman.

Sergey Ivanovitch says they do not believe it is proper for a gentleman to work in the fields next to them, and they are uncomfortable with the idea of the nobility stepping outside of the unwritten boundaries they all know and understand. Levin cannot help what the peasants do and do not like. He finds such work to be exhilarating, as well as satisfying. Levin is happy with his day, and Sergey Ivanovitch is equally satisfied with his.

Today Levin helped mow two hay fields and made a new friend; Sergey Ivanovitch solved two puzzling chess problems which had been vexing him and pondered their conversation from the night before. As Sergey Ivanovitch further explains the philosophical difference between the two of them, Levin struggles to remember the conversation or his position on the issue. He jumps up before his brother can ask him anything more about it and says he has to see his bailiff. Sergey Ivanovitch wants to come along, for Levin is “positively breathing out freshness and energy.” Suddenly Levin realizes he has not even thought about his housekeeper’s injured hand and races downstairs to ask her about it.