“Nature having herself ordained that every man should wed two wives⁠—”

“Why two?” asked I.

“You carry your affected simplicity too far,” he cried. “How can there be a completely harmonious union without the combination of the Four in One, viz. the bass and tenor of the man and the soprano and contralto of the two women?”

“But supposing,” said I, “that a man should prefer one wife or three?”

“It is impossible,” he said; “it is as inconceivable as that two and one should make five, or that the human eye should see a Straight Line.” I would have interrupted him; but he proceeded as follows: