once I'd married her she changed completely. Instead
of a dashing, snappy, tantalizing sort of a little Yum-Yum, she
turned religious and settled down so you wouldn't have known her.
There was nothing in it. Instead of a peach I had acquired a lemon.
I expected champagne and found I was drinking buttermilk. Get me?
You would never have guessed she'd been inside a theatre in her
life. Well, we got along the best we could and she made a hit at
the church, as a brand plucked from the burning. Used to tell her
experiences Friday nights and have all the parsons up to five-
o'clock tea. Meanwhile I forgot my romantic dreams of flashing
eyes and twinkling feet and began to get interested in business.
To-day I'm worth real money and am on top of the heap downtown;
but socially--Good Lord! the woman's a millstone! She's grown fat
and talks through her nose, and--"

"You want to get rid of her," finished Gottlieb.

"Exactly!" answered Dillingham. "How much will it cost?"

"I think you had better give me your check for ten thousand dollars
to begin with," replied my partner. "Such a case presents great
difficulties--almost insuperable without money. I am not even sure
that what you want can be accomplished without running grave personal
risks--not on your part, but on ours. Such risks must be compensated
for. What you desire, I take it, is to have your marriage annulled.
To do that it will be necessary to prove that the divorce procured
by Mrs. Dillingham from her former husband, Hawkins, was improperly
and illegally granted. We must knock out the decree in Hawkins
_versus_ Hawkins somehow or other. To be frank with you, it may
cost you a large sum."

"It is worth it," answered Dillingham. "Free me from this woman
and I'll give you twenty-five thousand dollars."

"Make it thirty-five thousand dollars," coaxed Gottlieb.

"Well, then, thirty-five thousand dollars," said Dillingham after
a pause.

"But you must promise to do exactly what we tell you!" continued
my partner.

"I expect to," replied the other.

"Very good, then," said Gottlieb. "In the first place, the original
decree is no good unless the summons actually was served on Hawkins
and the suit properly commenced. Now, perhaps Bunce served the
wrong man. He didn't know Hawkins. The latter was merely pointed
out to him. Already I begin to feel that there is grave doubt as
to whether the proceedings in Hawkins _versus_ Hawkins were ever
legall