Nikolai Yevgrafych

A surgeon, the son of a village priest and seminary-bred, married seven years to Olga Dmitrievna; believing himself terminally ill with consumption, he uncovers proof of his wife's affair with the young Ris, spends a night alternating between wounded pride and self-blame, and offers her an unpressured release and a divorce he will take the blame for -- which she accepts the release but flatly refuses, preferring to keep both marriage and lover.