"Nevertheless it would not be tolerated. The law steps in and protects women from ill-usage."
"How shameful! Not allowed to do what you like with your own wife!"
"Most assuredly not. Then you remarked that this was how you dealt with one of your wives. How many did you possess?"
"Off and on, seventeen."
"Now, no man is suffered to have more than one."
"What—one at a time?"
"Yes," I replied.
"Ah, well. Then if you had an old and ugly wife, or one who was a scold, you could kill her and get another, young and pretty."
"That would not be allowed."
"Not even if she were a scold?"