eller young agin, but makes him glad he's a-livin'. An'
that gal of her'n--well, she's a thoroughbred. Did you ever notice the
way she holds her head? I never see her an' Nan Dorrington together but
what I'm sorry I never got married. I'd put up wi' all the tribulation
for to have a gal like arry one on 'em."

Mr. Sanders paused a moment, and then turned to Silas Tomlin. "Silas, I
think Paul is fixin' for to do you proud. As I come along jest now, him
an' Jinny Claiborne was walkin' mighty close together. They must 'a'
been swappin' some mighty sweet secrets, bekaze they hardly spoke above
a whisper. An' they didn't look like they was in much of a hurry."

While Mr. Sanders was describing the scene he had witnessed,
exaggerating the facts to suit his whimsical humour, Silas Tomlin sat
bold upright in his chair, his eyes half-shut, and his thin lips working
nervously. "Paul knows which side his bread is buttered on," he snapped
out.

"Bread!" exclaimed Mr. Sanders, pretending to become tremendously
excited; "bread! shorely you must mean poun'-cake, Silas. And whoever
heard of putting butter on poun'-cake?"

When the loungers began to disperse, some of them going home, and others
going in to supper in response to the tavern bell, Mr. Silas Tomlin
called to Lawyer Tidwell, and the two walked along together, their homes
lying in the same direction.

"Gus," said Silas, somewhat nervously, "I want to put a case to you.
It's purely imaginary, and has probably never happened in the history of
the world."

"You mean what we lawyers call a hypothetical case," remarked Mr.
Tidwell, in a tone that suggested a spacious and a tolerant mind.

"Precisely," replied Mr. Silas Tomlin, with some eagerness. "I was
readin' a tale in an old copy of _Blackwood's Magazine_ the other day,
an' the whole business turned on just such a case. The sum and substance
of it was about this: A man marries a woman and they get along together
all right for awhile. Then, all of a sudden she takes a mortal dislike
to the man, screams like mad when he goes about her, and kicks up
generally when his name is mentioned. He, being a man of some spirit,
and rather touchy at best, finally leaves her in disgust. Finally her
folks send him word that she is dead. On the strength of that
information, he marries again, after so long a time. All goes well for
eighteen or twenty years, and then suddenly the first wife turns up.
Now what, in law, is the man's status