At ten o’clock, the old prince, Stepan Arkadyevitch, and Sergey Ivanovitch are sitting with Levin in his home. After ascertaining that Kitty is well, the men talk about other things. Levin hears them, but yesterday seems a hundred years ago to him and he studiously brings himself down from the heights of ecstasy to talk with them so he does not hurt their feelings. Even as he talks, though, all he can think about is his wife and the son he almost believes exists. He thinks differently about all women now, and their position is so exalted that it is almost beyond his imagining. As the men talk about yesterday’s dinner, Levin wonders what is happening with her now, what she is thinking, and whether the baby, Dmitri, is crying. In the middle of their conversation, Levin jumps up and goes to see his wife. The old prince asks him to send word if Kitty will see him.

Kitty is awake and planning the christening ceremony with her mother. When she sees him, Kitty gives him a welcoming smile which again seems to Levin to change her face from earthly to unearthly. The same flood of emotion which he experienced immediately after his son was born again floods Levin’s heart and he is not even able to speak. Kitty tells him she has rested, but her demeanor changes when she hears her son’s cry. She asks the midwife to bring the baby to her so he can meet his father.

The midwife brings something “red, and queer, and wriggling” to the bed where she powders and rewraps the baby for presentation to his father. Looking at the tiny bundle, Levin struggles to find some fatherly connection to the boy, but all he feels is disgust. But when the midwife unclothes him and Levin sees the tiny, perfect fingers and toes, he is suddenly afraid the midwife is going to hurt his son and actually holds her hand back from touching the baby.

The midwife laughs, says she will not hurt him, and rewraps the baby in his swaddling cloths. When she is finished, she dandles him so as to show him off to Levin. Kitty demands to hold him, and soon she is sitting up with her son in her arms. Levin still struggles to feel something more; this is not what he expected to feel for his son. As he is walking out of the room, he hears the women behind him laugh and turns to see the cause. Kitty is feeding her son for the first time.

Though the midwife insists the baby has eaten enough, Kitty refuses to give him up and he falls asleep in her arms. She tells Levin to come look at him now, and suddenly Dmitri puckers his tiny face and sneezes. Levin smiles, barely hiding his tears, and kisses his wife before leaving the room.

Rather than joy, the thought of his son brings him a “new torture of apprehension,” and the thought of his son’s future suffering brings him such pain that he does not remember the joy and even pride he had felt when his son sneezed.