“Ah! I see. Why, certainly I can.”
“An’ I want to ax you dis: Jerry say, ef I don’ stop meddlin’ wid he business, he won’ let me have no sto’-book, an’ he gwine lef’ me; dat he’ll meck you git a divo’ce from me—an’ I want to ax you ef he ken lef’ me jes cuz I want him to mark it merchandise? Kin he git a divorce jes for dat?” She was far too serious for Steve to laugh now. Her face was filled with anxiety.
“Of course, he cannot.”
“Well, will you write me dat down, so I ken show it to him?”
Steve gravely wrote a few lines, which, after reading to her, he folded with great solemnity and handed her.
They read as follows:
“LEGAL OPINION.
“I am of opinion that it is not a cause for divorce, either a vinculo matrimonii or a mensâ et thoro, when a woman insists that the whiskey which her husband drinks, and which she pays for, shall be entered on her account-book as Mdse. Given under my hand this —— day of ——, 18—.
“Stevenson Allen,
“Attorney and Counsellor-at-Law.”