Leaving the Shtcherbatskys, Levin walks to his brother's lodgings. He thinks how worthless he is, and Kitty is right to prefer Vronsky. He thinks of the ugliness of his brother's life, and how unfair it is for society to judge his outward achievements when his soul is as truthful and as full of goodness as anyone else's.
Thin and emaciated from consumption, Nicolai lives in squalor with his common-law wife, Marya Nicolaevna (Masha), whom he had rescued from a brothel. Finding his brother demoralized by illness, drunkenness, and a life of failure, Levin is too depressed to stay long. He has Masha promise to write him in case of need and takes the first train home, arriving toward evening of the next day.
Catching sight of his waiting coachman at the station, receiving the news of his estate — a cow had calved, the contractor had arrived — Levin feels his confusion and despondency drop away. He resolves to always help his brother, to abandon his dreams of happiness through marriage, and never give way to low passions, memories of which now torture him with unassuageable guilt. Like Dolly caught up in her household, the management of his large estate absorbs Levin's thoughts and temporarily soothes his disappointment.
