GO ON A FISHING EXCURSION. 241 



law, and the beginning too, for that matter, that when a 

 woman becomes a wife, she loses her identity, becomes 

 nobody ; that her husband absorbs her existence, as it were, 

 as he does her goods and chattels, in his own. Now, sir, do 

 you comprehend ? My wife was with me, and she, being 

 according to law nobody, of course I was alone. You, sir, 

 being a law abiding man, must admit that my proposition 

 is Q. E. D. 



" The doctrine of absorption, as I call it, is convenient. 

 It promotes harmony of action, by subjecting it to the con- 

 trol of a single will, thus avoiding all embarrassment from a 

 conflict of opinion between man and wife. So, on my way 

 to the trout stream (I say my way, for though my wife was 

 on horseback by my side, yet she being, according to the best 

 legal authorities, nobody, you see I was alone), I thought I 

 would enlighten the good lady in regard to the true posi- 

 tion, or rather the no position at all, which she occupied. 

 Our way lay for a couple of miles along an old road, to- 

 wards a clearing which had been abandoned, and through 

 which the stream flawed. The tall old trees spread their 

 long arms over us, clothed in the rich verdure of spring, and 

 the breeze, so fresh and fragrant, moaned, and sighed, and 

 whispered among the leaves. 



" ' My dear,' said I, blandly, as we rode along, the birds 

 singing merrily among the branches above us, ' do you know 

 that you are NOBODY ?' 



" ' Nobody, Mr. W ,' (I was simply Mr. W then; 



I had not become, nor even dreamed that I should become 



11 



