Trove
made no answer and shortly went away.
In certain court records one may read of the celebrated suit for
divorce which enlivened the winter of that year in the north
country. It is enough to quote the ringing words of one Colonel
Jenkins, who addressed the judge as follows:--
"Picture to yourself, sir, this venerable man, waking from his
dream of happiness to be robbed of his trousers--the very insignia
of his manhood. Picture him, sir, sitting in calico and despair,
mingled with hunger and humiliation. Think of him being addressed
as 'wife.' Being called 'wife,' sir, by this woman he had taken to
his heart and home. That, your Honour, was ingratitude sharper
than a serpent's tooth. Picture him driven from his fireside in
skirts,--the very drapery of humiliation,--skirts, your Honour,
that came barely to the knees and left his nether limbs exposed to
the autumnal breeze and the ridicule of the unthinking. Sir, it is
for you to say how far the widow may go in her oppression. If such
conduct is permitted, in God's name, who is safe?"
"May it please your Honour," said the opposing lawyer, "having
looked upon these pictures of the learned counsel, it is for you to
judge whether you ever saw any that gave you greater joy.
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