Arriving at Petersburg, Anna thinks of nothing but her son and how to meet him. Humiliated at the countess' lack of response, Anna's shame turns to wrath when Lydia lvanovna does write, saying that Seriozha's ideals would be shattered by his mother's presence.
She enters the house early one morning and goes to her son's room. Seriozha has become a young boy since her absence, thinner, taller, more mature. Aching with love, Anna hugs him while he is still asleep. Finding his mother is a reality, not a delicious dream, Seriozha wriggles in her arms and presses closely against her.
Anna returns to her hotel room so dazed she does not know why she is there. Despite her intense longing, and having prepared her emotions for the meeting, she has been unable to foresee how violently the encounter would affect her. Now the nurse brings in the newly dressed baby girl, whose round pink face wreathes in smiles when she sees her mother. Yet Anna feels her love for little Ani is nowhere as intense as that reserved for her son, the first child on whom she lavished all the affection she could not give its father.
Gazing at her son's photograph, she sees a picture of Vronsky on the same page of the album, suddenly remembering he is the cause of her present misery. Along with a surge of love for Vronsky, she reproaches him in her mind for not being here to share her unhappiness. Perhaps he does not love her, she thinks, and finds all sorts of evidence to prove it: their separate hotel suites, the guest Vronsky brings with him rather than seeing her alone.
When Vronsky and Anna meet for dinner that evening, he finds her in an unusual, reckless mood. She has invited guests to dine with them, flirts with the men, and, suddenly, decides to attend a benefit performance at the opera that night where all Petersburg will be there to see her. Your presence will acknowledge your position as a fallen woman, Vronsky wants to say to Anna. Begging her not to go, he tries not to look at her beauty, now heightened by the gown she will wear to the theater. Anna cries out that for her nothing matters but her love for Vronsky, that she does not regret what she has done.
Arriving when the performance is in full swing, Vronsky goes to Anna's box at intermission. He learns that she has been insulted by the countess in the next box, and her name is on everyone's lips as people throng the halls. Only at home does Anna succumb to the emotions her humiliation has aroused. She blames him for her shame, and Vronsky can comfort her only by repeated assurances of his love. Her dazzling beauty irritates him, and in his heart he reproaches her action. The next day, fully reconciled, they leave for the country.
