"You mean the French diplomat who married the Yankee vaudeville artist in China?"
"Yes," answered Tutt. "You recall they met in Shanghai and took a flying trip to Mongolia, where they were married by a Belgian missionary. The court held that the marriage was invalid, as the French statutes require a native of that country marrying abroad to have the ceremony performed either before a French diplomatic official or 'according to the usages of the country in which the marriage is performed.'"
"Wasn't the Belgian missionary a diplomatic official?" asked Mr. Tutt.
"Evidently not sufficiently so," replied his partner. "Anyhow, in Mongolia there are only two methods sanctified by tradition by which a man may secure a wife—capture or purchase."
"Well, didn't our client capture the actress?"
"Only with her consent—which I assume would be collusion under the French law," said Tutt. "And he certainly didn't buy her—though he might have. It appears that in that happy land a wife costs from five camels up; five camels for a flapper and so on up to thirty or forty camels for an old widow, who invariably brings the highest quotation."
"In Mongolia age evidently ripens and mellows women as it does wine in other countries," reflected Mr. Tutt.
"But you can buy some women for five pounds of rice," added Tutt. "Queer country, isn't it?"
"Not at all!" declared his senior. "Even in America every man pays and pays and pays for his wife—through the nose!"
Tutt grinned appreciatively.