Before Vronsky left, Anna Karenina realized that their bitter parting scenes would push him away from her rather than attach him to her. She resolved to remain composed at this parting; however, his look was so cold that her “peace of mind was destroyed.”

Later, she concludes what she always does—that she has been humiliated. She grows bitter that he has every right to go away, to leave her, and she has none. Knowing that she is trapped, he should not go. Instead he looks at her coldly, and she believes it reflects the beginning of his indifference to her. The only option she can see to end the misery of her sleepless nights and her fears that he will stop loving her is divorce and marriage. She begins to long for that and determines to agree to a divorce the first time the subject is broached.

The five days Vronsky is gone pass quickly; however, on the sixth day, Anna Karenina cannot find anything to distract her thoughts from him. Her daughter gets sick, though it is not serious. As hard as she tries, Anna Karenina cannot love this child, and feigning love is more than she can do. Toward the end of that day, she decides to leave and go to town; instead she writes a letter and sends it off without thinking.

The next morning, Anna Karenina receives Vronsky’s letter and immediately regrets her own. She dreads Vronsky’s reproach, especially when he learns the baby is not seriously ill, but she is still glad she wrote him. She knows she is a burden to Vronsky, that he will relinquish his freedom to return to her; yet she is glad he is coming. He might be weary of her, but at least he will be here, with her, where she will know every action he takes.

Though she hears him arrive, Anna Karenina does not go down to greet him because, of all her fears, she is most afraid of how Vronsky will greet her. Then she realizes he is really home and hears his voice. Forgetting everything, including her wounded pride, she runs joyfully to greet him.

Anna Karenina is charming, but Vronsky is unmoved. He is glad both she and baby Anna are well, but that evening Princess Varvara tells him Anna Karenina used morphine to sleep every night when he was gone. Vronsky talks animatedly about the elections; when they are alone, she immediately asks him if he was angry with her for the letter; he says he is most vexed because she does not understand that he has obligations to fulfill.

When he tells her that despite everything, he cannot live without her, Anna Karenina does not hear or believe him; but when he says he must go back to Moscow soon, she announces her intention to get a divorce. Vronsky says he never wishes to be parted from her, but his eyes have the vindictive look of a man who has been made cruel. It is gone in a moment, but Anna Karenina understands the meaning and never forgets it.

She writes the letter requesting a divorce. Near the end of November they go to Moscow, expecting Alexey Alexandrovitch’s positive response any time, so they establish a home as a married couple.