“You want to state a hypothetical case?” suggested Lawyer Gooch.

“That’s the word I was after.  ‘Apothecary’ was the best shot I could make at it in my mind.  The hypothetical goes.  I’ll state the case.  Suppose there’s a woman—­a deuced fine-looking woman—­who has run away from her husband and home?  She’s badly mashed on another man who went to her town to work up some real estate business.  Now, we may as well call this woman’s husband Thomas R. Billings, for that’s his name.  I’m giving you straight tips on the cognomens.  The Lothario chap is Henry K. Jessup.  The Billingses lived in a little town called Susanville—­a good many miles from here.  Now, Jessup leaves Susanville two weeks ago.  The next day Mrs. Billings follows him.  She’s dead gone on this man Jessup; you can bet your law library on that.”

Lawyer Gooch’s client said this with such unctuous satisfaction that even the callous lawyer experienced a slight ripple of repulsion.  He now saw clearly in his fatuous visitor the conceit of the lady-killer, the egoistic complacency of the successful trifler.

“Now,” continued the visitor, “suppose this Mrs. Billings wasn’t happy at home?  We’ll say she and her husband didn’t gee worth a cent.  They’ve got incompatibility to burn.  The things she likes, Billings wouldn’t have as a gift with trading-stamps.  It’s Tabby and Rover with them all the time.  She’s an educated woman in science and culture, and she reads things out loud at meetings.  Billings is not on.  He don’t appreciate progress and obelisks and ethics, and things of that sort.  Old Billings is simply a blink when it comes to such things.  The lady is out and out above his class.  Now, lawyer, don’t it look like a fair equalization of rights and wrongs that a woman like that should be allowed to throw down Billings and take the man that can appreciate her?

“Incompatibility,” said Lawyer Gooch, “is undoubtedly the source of much marital discord and unhappiness.  Where it is positively proved, divorce would seem to be the equitable remedy.  Are you—­excuse me—­is this man Jessup one to whom the lady may safely trust her future?”

“Oh, you can bet on Jessup,” said the client, with a confident wag of his head.  “Jessup’s all right.  He’ll do the square thing.  Why, he left Susanville just to keep people from talking about Mrs. Billings.  But she followed him up, and now, of course, he’ll stick to her.  When she gets a divorce, all legal and proper, Jessup will do the proper thing.”

“And now,” said Lawyer Gooch, “continuing the hypothesis, if you prefer, and supposing that my services should be desired in the case, what—­”

The client rose impulsively to his feet.

“Oh, dang the hypothetical business,” he exclaimed, impatiently.  “Let’s let her drop, and get down to straight talk.  You ought to know who I am by this time.  I want that woman to have her divorce.  I’ll pay for it.  The day you set Mrs. Billings free I’ll pay you five hundred dollars.”