In the case of Slapman vs.  Slapman, a great number of witnesses had been examined on each side.  Affidavits, amounting to hundreds of pages, had been obtained in distant States—­some as far away as California.  The lawyers had spared neither their own time nor the money of their clients in raking together testimony which would bear in the slightest degree upon the interests which they represented.  All the relatives of Mr. Slapman had testified that he was a gentleman uniformly kind and courteous, possessing a singular placidity of temper, and indulgent to his wife to a degree where indulgence became a fault.  Those relatives, and they were numerous—­particularly in the country branch—­who had passed anniversary weeks at Mr. Slapman’s house, were very severe on Mrs. Slapman.  She was a proud, disagreeable woman.  She was continually snubbing her husband before people.  She had a great many male friends, whose acquaintance she had retained in defiance of his wishes.  She was known to have received letters from men, and when her husband had desired to peruse them, had laughed at him.  It is true that she pretended to be a patroness of literature, science, and the arts; but anybody could see that those things were only the cover of the grossest improprieties.  She had been heard to listen without remonstrance, to declarations of love from several young men.  It turned out, upon cross-examination, that these irregularities took place in charades and plays, of which Mr. Slapman’s relatives had been shocked spectators.  With regard to Mr. Overtop’s transactions in the family, they could say nothing; for they had long since ceased to visit Mrs. Slapman, on account of her disgraceful conduct—­and also (they might have added, but they did not add) because Mrs. Slapman latterly had her house full of Jigbees, and put her husband’s relatives into obscure rooms in the third story, and quite forgot their existence afterward.

Per contra, all the Jigbees—­and they were a prolific race—­swore that their distinguished relative was a pattern of artlessness and innocence.  That she was remarkable from early childhood for a charming frankness and transparent candor.  That when this bright ornament of the Jigbee stock was sought in marriage by the defendant, the whole family, with one mind and voice, opposed the match.  They had felt that a being of her exalted intellectual tastes was too good for a sordid money-getting creature like Slapman.  But that man, by his ingenious artifices, had succeeded in winning the hand of their gifted kinswoman, and married her against their unanimous protests.  There was but one consolation for this family misfortune.  Mr. Slapman was reported to be wealthy, and could afford to indulge his wife in the exercise of her noble longings for TRUTH.  They were willing to say that Mr. Slapman had not been illiberal, so far as vulgar money was concerned.  He had given to his wife the house and lot which she occupied, and had never stinted her in respect of allowances.  But what was money to a woman of Mrs. Slapman’s soul, when her husband withheld from her his confidence and trust, regarded her innocent labors in behalf of Art, Literature, and the Drama, with a cold, unsympathizing eye, and finally descended so low as to feel a brutal jealousy of those gentlemen of talent, of whom she was the revered patroness?