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The farming of the land, as he was managing it, had become not

merely unattractive but revolting to him, and he could take no

further interest in it.

To this now was joined the presence, only twenty-five miles off,

of Kitty Shtcherbatskaya, whom he longed to see and could not

see. Darya Alexandrovna Oblonskaya had invited him, when he was

over there, to come; to come with the object of renewing his

offer to her sister, who would, so she gave him to understand,

accept him now. Levin himself had felt on seeing Kitty

Shtcherbatskaya that he had never ceased to love her; but he

could not go over to the Oblonskys', knowing she was there. The

fact that he had made her an offer, and she had refused him, had

placed an insuperable barrier between her and him. "I can't ask

her to be my wife merely because she can't be the wife of the man

she wanted to marry," he said to himself. The thought of this

made him cold and hostile to her. "I should not be able to speak

to her without a feeling of reproach; I could not look at her

without resentment; and she will only hate me all the more, as

she's bound to.