" "I want to tell you that I can't dine at your house, because the terms of relationship which have existed between us must cease.

" "How? How do you mean? What for?" said Stepan Arkadyevitch with a smile.

"Because I am beginning an action for divorce against your sister, my wife.

I ought to have..." But, before Alexey Alexandrovitch had time to finish his sentence, Stepan Arkadyevitch was behaving not at all as he had expected.

He groaned and sank into an armchair.