In the opening pages of The Case of the Crooked Candle, Perry Mason discusses the personality of his law clerk, Jackson, with Della Street.
"Now take Jackson. ... He has thwarted all impulses. ... When he married, he married a widow. He doubtless could make no romantic approach to a woman until he had evidence that previous romantic activities had been established, thereby having the assurance of precedent ..."
(Erle Stanley Gardner, Pocket Book edition, 1951, p. 5)
That amused me.