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One would have thought that nothing could be simpler than for

him, a man of good family, rather rich than poor, and thirty-two

years old, to make the young Princess Shtcherbatskaya an offer of

marriage; in all likelihood he would at once have been looked

upon as a good match. But Levin was in love, and so it seemed to

him that Kitty was so perfect in every respect that she was a

creature far above everything earthly; and that he was a creature

so low and so earthly that it could not even be conceived that

other people and she herself could regard him as worthy of her.

After spending two months in Moscow in a state of enchantment,

seeing Kitty almost every day in society, into which he went so

as to meet her, he abruptly decided that it could not be, and

went back to the country.