r native village. "A life of pleasure"--as it
is sarcastically termed--seemed her only resource. In her terrible
extremity, she made a last appeal to her deceiver, and succeeded in
touching a tender spot in his heart. Perplexed as to what disposition he
could possibly make of the girl who had loved him "not wisely but too
well," he consulted an acquaintance notorious for the number and variety
of his amours. "Oh, my dear boy, that's easily settled,"' said the
friend, "get a Western divorce through one of those advertising
fellows." The broker didn't "catch on"--he couldn't see why he should
obtain a divorce, and said as much. "But she wants the divorce!" replied
the adviser. "Let her be divorced from Frederick Brown, or Augustus
Smith, or Maximilian Johnson, and then, you see, her character will be
restored, her virtue whitewashed, and she will be corroborated and
sustained as a respectable member of society; an object of envy and
emulation on the part of her sex, and of interest, admiration and honest
courtship by ours." So a decree was duly applied for through one of
those "divorce lawyers" wherein the petitioner, Mrs. Sadie Johnson,
sought to be severed from the hated yoke of her husband, George
Frederick Johnson, who, as the petition set forth, not only treated her
with habitual brutality but continually violated the purity of the
hymeneal couch, to wit, etc., etc. The papers were duly served upon the
defendant, who assumed the name of George Frederick Johnson for the
purpose of the suit. At the expiration of the time allowed in such cases
for an answer to the petition, no defense had been set up. The lady's
lawyer thereupon moved for the appointment of a referee, as well as for
counsel fee and alimony. All went smoothly, of course, for the
petitioner, and in due course the decree of absolute divorce was granted
to this unmarried lady, with permission for her to marry again, while
the disreputable George Frederick Johnson was absolutely debarred from
any such privilege.

When the decree was recorded, Sadie returned to her family by the
peaceful waters of the lake, and was received with open arms. She was an
object of envy to the unsophisticated young ladies of the neighborhood,
and of open and unbounded admiration to the young men. She had learned
to dress and to put on flash airs, and her experience in vice, gilded
over by this divorce sham, rendered her much more attractive metal to
matrimonially-disposed Strephon