“It would cost a couple of hundred down, and perhaps would require more than that. It would depend largely upon the case. Where is your wife now?” “She is not in this State; she is in Pennsylvania,” replied Elwell. “Were you married under your own name?” inquired the lawyer. Elwell shook his head. “Then I presume your present name has been assumed?” Another shake of the head from his visitor. “Can you bring any charge against your wife?” inquired Coleman. Elwell flushed almost indignantly. “No; there is no charge to be made, only we have not got on well together.” “Incompatibility of temper,” said Peter. “That will do. Have you any children?” Elwell nodded and gulped. Something in his throat appeared to trouble him. “More than one?” inquired Coleman. A shake of the head this time, implying an answer in the negative. “Well,” said Peter, after a long pause, “you will have to tell me the whole story.” And then this rising young man told his story, told it in a half-sulky, half-savage way, but told it truthfully. “Now, what else do you want?” he demanded savagely, when he had finished. “A check is all I shall want from you to-day,” said Coleman coolly. “You are sure you can do it, are you?” inquired his client, after writing out a check. Mr. Coleman was perfectly sure. “What else will I have to do? How long will it take?” demanded Elwell. The last question Mr. Coleman could not answer, to the first he said that there were certain papers to be made out that would require his client’s signature, and certain affidavits to which he would have to swear. These Mr. Coleman would prepare at his earliest moment, after that there was nothing for his client to do but to wait as patiently as possible. “Will I not have to attend court to testify, or anything of that sort?” “No, nothing of that sort,” replied Peter. “You see,” he continued in explanation, “the courts of Cook County are so crowded, and there is so much publicity connected with all divorce proceedings here, that in a case of this kind it is better to bring it before one of the interior courts, where none of the parties to the suit are known.” “You can do that, can you?” “Oh, yes; it is quite common.” “And there is no doubt as to the legality?” “There is no doubt whatever,” replied the lawyer in the same peculiar tone he had used in answering the same question before. “There is no doubt whatever,” he repeated, rubbing his hands together and smiling cunningly; “not the shadow of doubt.” Elwell still lingered around the office, although there appeared to be no more business to transact. He seemed nervous and ill at ease, almost as if he regretted the step he had just taken, and was half inclined to withdraw. He bit and tore savagely at the cigar he was making a pretense of smoking, striding from the window to the desk, and from the desk back to the window again, like a caged animal.