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.