must
be continuous. An offer to return made by the deserted spouse in good
faith at any time before the separation has run for the statutory
period will bar a divorce, but not if the offer is made afterward.
Again, a husband who drives his wife away from him by his misconduct
deserts her as clearly as if he had left her. To cease living together
for the time fixed by statute is not desertion unless this was done
intentionally. For example, separation on account of business,
sickness, etc., is not desertion. Not only must there be an intention
to leave the other party, this must be without consent.

Another cause for divorce, quite generally recognized, is habitual
drunkenness. This must be of a gross and confirmed nature. While other
causes exist the most general have now been mentioned. In some states
there is a more general ground, any reason rendering married life a
failure. Of course, much depends on the discretion, mental and moral
make-up of a judge in applying the facts to a cause for separation
that is so general. An agreement in advance to make a cause of divorce
is everywhere condemned by the law.

Divorces are of two kinds: from the bond of marriage, often called
absolute divorces, which put an end to the marriage relation and
render the parties single; and divorces from bed and board, limited
divorces, more accurately called judicial separations, in which the
marriage relation is not dissolved, but the injured party is given the
right to live separate from the other. In more than half of the
American states no distinction is made between kind of divorce, all
divorces are absolute, from the bond of marriage.

The legal effect of divorces is still a grave matter. When a divorce
has been legally granted by a state, the courts of every other state
for obvious reasons recognize and try to uphold the decree or
judgment, though not all of them, and consequently strange results
follow. Thus a person who was married and living in New York leaves
his wife for good reason and goes to Connecticut. After acquiring a
legal residence there and proper standing in a court, he applies for a
divorce, the proceedings are regular in every respect and a divorce is
granted. He marries again and takes his wife to New York for a visit.
There he is sued by the first wife for support, moreover, by the laws
of New York he is an adulterer. In New York he is still married to the
first wife, in Connecticut to the second. If children a