Alexey Alexandrovitch sighed, plucking up his courage.

But having once made up his mind he went on in his shrill voice, without timidity--or hesitation, accentuating here and there a word.

"I have the misfortune," Alexey Alexandrovitch began, "to have been deceived in my married life, and I desire to break off all relations with my wife by legal means--that is, to be divorced, but to do this so that my son may not remain with his mother.