Anna returns home to find her son Serge running down the stairs to greet her with joyful shouts of mother. Though she initially feels a slight sense of disillusionment compared to the idealized image she held in her mind, she finds physical and moral comfort in his tender presence and affectionate embraces. She shares small gifts sent by the children of Dolly and talks about a clever little girl named Tania in Moscow who already knows how to read. Serge asks if he is less nice than Tania, and Anna reassures him that nothing in the world is better than him, which makes the child smile.
Scarcely has Anna finished her lunch when Countess Lydie Ivanovna is announced. The countess is a tall and sickly woman with striking dark eyes whom Anna usually likes, though today certain flaws stand out to her for the first time. The countess immediately begins complaining about how exhausted she feels from fighting for truth and describes how men have taken over a philanthropic and religious institution run by their small circle of sisters, distorting and discrediting the original vision. After recounting details from a letter written by Pravdine and speaking at length about the struggles surrounding the Union of Churches, the countess hurries off to attend a meeting of the Slavic committee. Left alone, Anna reflects critically on the countess for the first time, wondering why she never noticed before how a supposedly charitable Christian woman spends her time fighting with others who share the exact same goals.
Another visitor arrives soon after in the form of a high ranking official wife bringing local town news, while Alexis Alexandrovitch remains busy at his ministry. Left alone again, Anna spends the time before dinner observing her son eating his meal and organizing her backlog of correspondence and personal affairs. The intense emotional turmoil and shame she suffered during her journey home begin to fade away as she settles back into the normal routine of her daily life, leaving her feeling calm and virtually irreproachable.
Reflecting on her previous state of mind, Anna wonders why she made such a fuss over nothing, convincing herself that Wronsky simply uttered nonsense that can easily be ignored without consequence. She decides against mentioning the incident to Alexis Alexandrovitch to avoid giving it unneeded importance, recalling a past situation where her husband expressed absolute trust in her tact and dismissed minor social declarations as things any woman in society must occasionally expect. Concluding that silence is the best path forward, she reassures herself that she has nothing serious to confess to God or her husband.