In the early days of his return to the country Levin suffers deeply. Gradually the bitter memory of his rejection disappears as the daily incidents of his country life absorb him. With the coming of spring and his plans for many improvements on his estate, he is quite happy.
Stepan Arkadyevitch appears one evening for he is to sell a forest on his wife's property nearby. Stiva and Levin enjoy an excellent day of stand-shooting, returning with a good catch of snipe. While Oblonsky and the prospective purchaser, Ryabinin, haggle over the price of the forest, Levin fumes. Stiva, hungry for cash, settles for a much lower price than Konstantin thinks the property is worth.
Later on, the two friends talk of the Shtcherbatskys, and Levin learns of Kitty's illness, of Vronsky's rejection. Stiva says Kitty had only a "superficial attraction" for the young officer, that Vronsky's being "such a perfect aristocrat" impressed her mother but not Kitty. Levin's anger at Ryabinin, the fraudulent sale of the forest, and at Vronsky focusses on the concept of "aristocrat." Those like Vronsky or like Ryabinin who gain success by currying favor are not aristocrats, he says. Russia's aristocracy consists of people produced through generations of landowners, not those parasites who deplete and devalue her land and resources for their own gain (like Ryabinin). "I prize what's come to me from my ancestors or been won by hard work," pursues Levin, rather than maintaining myself "by favor of the powerful of this world." He and Stiva part as friends despite the painful subject which could have caused a rift.
