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She bowed her head. Not only did she not say what she had said the day before to her lover - that he was her husband and her husband was superfluous - but she did not even think it. She felt all the justice of his words and only said softly:

‘You cannot describe my position as any worse than I myself understand it to be. But why are you saying all this?’

‘Why am I saying this? Why?’ he went on just as wrathfully. ‘So that you know that since you have not carried out my wish with regard to observing propriety, I shall take measures to bring this situation to an end.’

‘It will end soon anyway,’ she said, and again, at the thought of her near and now desired death, tears came to her eyes.

‘It will end sooner than you’ve thought up with your lover! You must satisfy your animal passions ...’

‘Alexei Alexandrovich! I will not say that it is not magnanimous, but it is not even respectable to hit someone who is down.’

‘Yes, you’re only mindful of yourself, but the suffering of the man who was your husband does not interest you. You are indifferent to the destruction of his whole life, to the suffering he has exple ... expre ... experimenced.’

Alexei Alexandrovich was speaking so quickly that he became confused and could not get the word out. He finally came out with ‘experimenced’. She nearly laughed and at the same time felt ashamed that anything could make her laugh at such a moment. And for the first time, momentarily, she felt for him, put herself in his place and pitied him. But what could she say or do? She bowed her head and was silent. He, too, was silent for a while and then began to speak in a cold and less squeaky voice, emphasizing the arbitrarily chosen words, which had no particular importance.

‘I’ve come to tell you ...’ he said.

She looked at him. ‘No, I imagined it,’ she thought, remembering the look on his face when he stumbled over the word ‘experimenced’, ‘no, how can a man with those dull eyes, with that smug calm, feel anything?’

‘There’s nothing I can change,’ she whispered.

‘I’ve come to tell you that I am leaving for Moscow tomorrow and will not return to this house again, and you will be informed of my decision through my lawyer, to whom I shall entrust the matter of the divorce. My son will move to my sister’s,’ Alexei Alexandrovich said, trying hard to recall what he had wanted to say about the son.

‘You need Seryozha in order to hurt me,’ she said, looking at him from under her brows. ‘You don’t love him ... Leave me Seryozha!’

‘Yes, I’ve even lost my love for my son, because he is connected with my loathing for you. But all the same I will take him. Good-bye!’

And he turned to go, but this time she held him back.

‘Alexei Alexandrovich, leave me Seryozha!’ she whispered once again. ‘I have nothing more to say. Leave me Seryozha till my ... I will give birth soon, leave him with me!’

Alexei Alexandrovich turned red and, tearing his hand from hers, silently left the room.

V

The waiting room of the famous Petersburg lawyer was full when Alexei Alexandrovich entered it. Three ladies: an old one, a young one, and a merchant’s wife; and three gentlemen: one a German banker with a signet ring on his finger, another a merchant with a beard, and the third an irate official in uniform with a decoration around his neck, had obviously been waiting for a long time already. Two assistants were writing at their desks, their pens scratching. The writing implements, of which Alexei Alexandrovich was a connoisseur, were exceptionally good. Alexei Alexandrovich could not help noticing it. One of the assistants, without getting up, narrowed his eyes and addressed Alexei Alexandrovich gruffly:

‘What would you like?’

‘I have business with the lawyer.’

‘The lawyer’s occupied,’ the assistant said sternly, pointing with his pen at the waiting people, and went on writing.

‘Could he not find time?’ said Alexei Alexandrovich.

‘He has no free time, he’s always occupied. Kindly wait.’

‘Then I shall trouble you to give him my card,’ Alexei Alexandrovich