Stiva now arrives. After greeting his in-laws, he draws Levin off to dinner, intently planning their menu while they drive to the restaurant. Oblonsky is perfectly at home among the bronzes, starchy tablecloths, mirrors, obsequious waiters. In their private dining room, he selects their wines and courses with elaborate care. Levin feels almost sullied in this luxurious atmosphere. After the freshness of skating and his delight in the innocence and truthfulness of Kitty, his present setting seems stale and artificial. People in the country, he tells Stiva, order their lives around the goal of work, not idleness. City people, having lost touch with the functional aspects of life, are only prepared to seek pleasure. "Why yes," answers Stiva good-naturedly, "That's just the aim of civilization — to make everything a source of pleasure." Oblonsky, guessing why Levin returned to Moscow, declares he would be delighted to have him as a brother-in-law. He wonders if Levin knows Count Vronsky, for this handsome aide-de-camp is also in love with Kitty. Alexey Kirillovitch Vronsky, rich, brilliant, and well connected, is, according to Stiva "one of the finest specimens of the gilded youth of Petersburg." Levin pales at this news. He feels that Stiva's counsels and talk of rivalry profane his great feeling for Kitty.
Oblonsky tells Levin of his own domestic problems and Konstantin cannot understand that a man would go "straight to the bakeshop and steal a roll" when he has just dined on plenty. Fiercely monogamous, Levin says he has "a loathing for fallen women" but then recollects his own sins. Stiva points out that life does not consist of clear-cut principles: Its variety, charm, and beauty is made up of "light and shadow" and that Levin is wrong to believe that one's work, one's relationships, one's thoughts must always correspond to a defined aim in life.
After dinner, the two friends part. Levin looks forward to his evening at the Shtcherbatskys where his fate will be decided.
