Anna Karenina stands at the window and watches Vronsky leave. She tells herself he is gone and their relationship is over; her heart grows cold and she sees the shadows of death. These images are so terrifying that she is afraid of being alone and rings the bell for a servant. Without waiting for him to get there, she runs out to meet him and asks where the count has gone. The servant tells her Vronsky has gone to the stable but left word that if she cared to go out today the carriage would be back immediately.

She writes a note telling Vronsky she was wrong and he must come home to her immediately and has it delivered to him at the stable. Once the servant leaves on his errand, Anna Karenina is again afraid of being alone and goes to the nursery. When she sees her daughter, her first thought is that she looks nothing like her son, Seryozha. In her tangled thoughts, she had expected to find him there. She watches her play for a bit, but baby Anna reminds her so much of Vronsky that she flies out of the room, sobbing.

Now Anna Karenina wonders if Vronsky will come to her, and if he does she wonders if he will explain the excitement on his face after seeing the girl in the carriage that morning. She decides that, whether he explains or not, she will believe him. If she does not, there is only one option available to her, and she has already proven that she cannot follow through with that.

Twenty minutes have passed, time enough for him to get her note and be on his way back to her. When she begins to cry, she stops herself and says that she must look her best when he comes. She cannot even remember if she had arranged her hair that morning, so she goes to a mirror to check. She had, but she could not remember doing it; and when she looks at herself she sees a swollen face with scared, strangely glittering eyes looking back at her. It seems to her that Vronsky is kissing her neck, but it is only her horrible imagination.

Back in her room, Anna Karenina thinks she is losing her mind; her maid, Annushka, looks at her mistress with sympathy and reminds her that she was planning to go see her sister Dolly. As she prepares to go, Anna Karenina keeps calculating the time and looking for Vronsky to arrive. Suddenly the carriage arrives, but Vronsky is not in it. He had gone somewhere else, so the note was not delivered.

Anna Karenina considers for a moment and decides she must get away, out of this house; she will go to Dolly’s or go out of her mind here. She sends a telegram (”I absolutely must talk to you; come at once”) to Vronsky and has it delivered to his mother’s home. Annushka encourages Anna Karenina to go to Dolly’s as she seems helpless to take any action on her own right now. If a telegram arrives, it will be sent on to the Oblanskys’.