Something of Men I Have Known: With Some Papers of a General Nature, Political, Historical, and RetrospectiveStevenson, Adlai E. (Adlai Ewing)
History
Something of Men I Have Known: With Some Papers of a General Nature, Political, Historical, and Retrospective
Stevenson, Adlai E. (Adlai Ewing)
United States -- Biography; United States -- Politics and government -- 1865-1933
At an early hour on the morning thereafter, my client called, and I
soon discovered he was in a frame of mind by no means joyous. The
disappointment he expressed at the continuance of his suit was
evidently sincere. My explanation of the impossibility of preventing
it, and the confident hope I held out that he would certainly
get his divorce at the next term, evidently gave him little relief.
He at length intimated a desire to have a confidential talk with
me. I took him into my "private office" (that has a professional
sound, but as a matter of fact my office had but one room, and that
was "open as day" to everybody) and assured him that whatever he
said to me would be in the strictest confidence. Feeling that I
was on safe ground, I now spoke in a lofty tone of the sacred
relation existing between counsel and client, and that any
communication he desired to make would be as safe as within his
own bosom, "or words to that effect." Relieved, apparently, by
the atmosphere of profound secrecy that now enveloped us, he
"unfolded himself" to the effect that some years before he had been
deeply in love with an excellent young lady in his neighborhood,
but for some trifling cause he could now hardly explain, he had in
a pique suddenly turned his attentions to another to whom he was
soon united in the holy bonds that he was now so anxious to have
sundered by the strong arm of the law.
A deeply drawn sigh was here the prelude to the startling revelation,
that since his present sea of troubles had encompassed him about
the old flame had been rekindled in his heart. I now candidly
informed him that I was wholly inexperienced in such matters, but as
his counsel I would take the liberty to advise him of the monstrous
impropriety of any visible manifestation or expression of the newly
revived attachment. This was followed by the comforting assurance
upon my part, however, that when divorced, he would be lawfully
entitled to re-enter the matrimonial lists in such direction, and at
whatever gait seemed to him best. The sigh to which the above was
the prelude, hardly prepared me for the startling revelation
that another fellow was now actually keeping company with the young
lady. My client's feelings here overcame him for a moment, and he
complained bitterly of his hard fate in being "tied up," while the
coast was clear to his competitor. After a moment of deep study,
he expressed the opinion in substance, that if his rival could only
be held in check until the divorce was granted, he was confident
all would be well.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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