While Dolly prepares for bed, Anna comes to her for a private talk. She asks what Dolly thinks of her life. Though looking forward to the end of summer when she and Vronsky will be alone together, Anna says everything shows that "he will spend half his time away from home." Dolly advises divorce so Anna and Vronsky can marry and legitimize Ani and future children. When Anna firmly declares "there will be no more children" because she wishes it so, an unheard-of world presents itself to Dolly for the first time. My only ties to Alexey are those of love, continues Anna, and she must always be fresh and lovely to keep his interest. Dolly feels an impassable gulf of questions separate her from Anna, questions they can never agree on and which remain better unspoken.
Divorce would mean she permanently loses Seriozha, Anna explains to Dolly. Loving her son and her lover equally, "but both more than myself," she continues, is an impossible dilemma. "I cannot have them both, and that's the only thing I want . . . Nothing else matters," Anna concludes.
Filled with pity for Anna's suffering, Dolly sees her own life with renewed charm. She is eager to go home the next morning, while Anna is sad to see her go. She realizes that with Dolly's departure the feelings aroused in her will never be stirred again.
