The appellee originally sought a divorce upon the ground of personal indignities. By cross-complaint the appellant asked for a divorce on the ground of adultery, and the chancellor remarked in an oral opinion that "he came pretty close to proving it. In our opinion the appellant did prove his charge by a preponderance of the evidence. We will not detail all the testimony indicating that the appellee entered into an adulterous relationship with J.
After some eight years of a not too happy marriage Mrs. Ayers met Griffin, who is a bus driver, during a trip to Florida in She readily admits that between that meeting and her separation from her husband, in February, , she frequently met Griffin for coffee and talked to him repeatedly by telephone. She attributes to coincidence the fact that she seems to have encountered Griffin in or near Little Rock, Hot Springs, Houston, Omaha, and perhaps other cities.
Ayers says, for example, that she flew to Houston to see a basketball game, but it happened that Griffin was also there; they had dinner and breakfast together and stayed at the same hotel. There is also evidence that she visited Griffin at his apartment in Fort Smith and may have received him in her home during her husband's absence.
The chancellor feared that if he granted the divorce sought by both parties "Mrs. Ayers will immediately get married to her bus driver friend," and the increase in alimony was awarded on the express condition that Mrs. Ayers not see Griffin in the future. The appellant, it is true, is by no means free from fault.
In the course of establishing a successful position in the business world he seems to have devoted very little time to his family. When his suspicions were aroused he had his wife spied on by paid investigators. Perhaps with some provocation he cursed and struck his wife when she asked if she might have Griffin in the home for coffee.
