Stepan Arkadyevitch was in very low spirits, which happened rarely with him, and for a long while he could not go to sleep.

Everything he could recall to his mind, everything was disgusting; but most disgusting of all, as if it were something shameful, was the memory of the evening he had spent at Countess Lidia Ivanovna's.

Next day he received from Alexey Alexandrovitch a final answer, refusing to grant Anna's divorce, and he understood that this decision was based on what the Frenchman had said in his real or pretended trance.

In order to carry through any undertaking in family life, there must necessarily be either complete division between the husband and wife, or loving agreement.