“Divorce by our laws,” he said, with a slight shade of disapprobation of our laws, “is possible, as you are aware, in the following cases....  Wait a little!” he called to a clerk who put his head in at the door, but he got up all the same, said a few words to him, and sat down again. “...In the following cases:  physical defect in the married parties, desertion without communication for five years,” he said, crooking a short finger covered with hair, “adultery” (this word he pronounced with obvious satisfaction), “subdivided as follows” (he continued to crook his fat fingers, though the three cases and their subdivisions could obviously not be classified together):  “physical defect of the husband or of the wife, adultery of the husband or of the wife.”  As by now all his fingers were used up, he uncrooked all his fingers and went on:  “This is the theoretical view; but I imagine you have done me the honor to apply to me in order to learn its application in practice.  And therefore, guided by precedents, I must inform you that in practice cases of divorce may all be reduced to the following—­ there’s no physical defect, I may assume, nor desertion?...”

Alexey Alexandrovitch bowed his head in assent.

“—­May be reduced to the following:  adultery of one of the married parties, and the detection in the fact of the guilty party by mutual agreement, and failing such agreement, accidental detection.  It must be admitted that the latter case is rarely met with in practice,” said the lawyer, and stealing a glance at Alexey Alexandrovitch he paused, as a man selling pistols, after enlarging on the advantages of each weapon, might await his customer’s choice.  But Alexey Alexandrovitch said nothing, and therefore the lawyer went on:  “The most usual and simple, the sensible course, I consider, is adultery by mutual consent.  I should not permit myself to express it so, speaking with a man of no education,” he said, “but I imagine that to you this is comprehensible.”

Alexey Alexandrovitch was, however, so perturbed that he did not immediately comprehend all the good sense of adultery by mutual consent, and his eyes expressed this uncertainty; but the lawyer promptly came to his assistance.

“People cannot go on living together—­here you have a fact.  And if both are agreed about it, the details and formalities become a matter of no importance.  And at the same time this is the simplest and most certain method.”

Alexey Alexandrovitch fully understood now.  But he had religious scruples, which hindered the execution of such a plan.

“That is out of the question in the present case,” he said.  “Only one alternative is possible:  undesigned detection, supported by letters which I have.”

At the mention of letters the lawyer pursed up his lips, and gave utterance to a thin little compassionate and contemptuous sound.