Vronsky returns to his Petersburg apartment and finds his favorite comrade, Petrivsky, there with some friends, including Baroness Shilton, Petrivsky's current companion. Amidst the slightly drunken chatter and gossip of his gay, broad-minded companions, Vronsky drops back into the light-hearted pleasant world he has always lived in. He has a bantering discussion with Baroness Shilton about divorce. Her husband, she says, wants to keep her property by way of retribution for her unfaithfulness.
Vronsky dresses himself in his uniform to report to his regiment. He plans, among other visits, to pay his cousin Princess Betsy Tverskoy a call. Related to Anna through marriage, Betsy would bring him into that society where he might meet Madame Karenina. As he always does in Petersburg, Vronsky leaves home, not meaning to return until late at night.
