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 wishes in the matter, what escape is there from our situation?"

"If you wish for my advice," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, with the same smooth, almond-oily, affectionate smile with which he had spoken to his sister; and this smile was so persuasive that Alekseï Aleksandrovitch, giving himself up to the weakness which overpowered him, was involuntarily inclined to believe what his brother-in-law said. "She will never say what her wishes are. But there is one thing possible, one thing that she may hope for," continued Stepan Arkadyevitch, "and that is to break the bonds which are only the cause of cruel recollections. In my opinion, it is indispensable to put your relations on an entirely new footing, and that can only be done by both of you resuming your freedom."

"Divorce!" interrupted Alekseï Aleksandrovitch, with disgust.

"Yes, I suppose that divorce .... yes, divorce," repeated Stepan Arkadyevitch, blushing. "Taking everything into consideration, that is the most sensible course when two married people find themselves in such a situation as yours. What is to be done, when husband and wife find that living together is impossible? This can always be brought about."

Aleksei Aleksandrovitch drew a deep sigh, and covered his eyes.

"There is only one consideration,—whether one of the parties wishes to marry again. If not, it is very simple," continued Stepan Arkadyevitch, recovering more and more from his feeling of constraint.

Alekseï Aleksandrovitch, with his face distorted by emotion, muttered something to himself, but made no reply. What seemed so simple to Oblonsky, he had turned over a thousand thousand times in his mind, and, instead of finding it very easy, found it utterly impossible. Now that the conditions for divorce were known to him, it seemed to him impossible, because the sense of his personal dignity, as well as his respect for religion, prevented him from confessing to a fictitious accusation of