After a few days since the previous posting, I am glad to receive two comments from C and Phy. Now, let's discuss what is actually hiding inside these two sentence. First of all, according to Phy's thinking, it COULD really be your case because Paul kind of regretted getting a divorce, the reason COULD really be that he didn't consider his wife as a good wife until he knew Susie. However, you are looking at the two sentences separately to come to this conclusion, which should not be the case. There must be some relationship between the sentences.
First of all, Susie sounded quite desperate, don't you agree? "If I had known you earlier, I would have dated you and then married you." What kind of a person will say such a thing in front of a man? Don't you think that is too direct?
Now, if you were Paul, you either loved it or hated it from his reply.
Could it be "loved it"? If so, then that means, "If I had known you earlier, I wouldn't have divorced with my wife" is positive in meaning because he wants to thank her, which means, "If I had known you earlier" is good, which further means, that "I wouldn't have divorced with my wife" is good.
So far, do you understand? If not, here is a simplified version:
Susie really wanted to marry Paul and Paul regretted having a divorce with his wife.
Now, how is making any sense? Doesn't sound reasonable right? And it doesn't sound like he is replying to her.
But if you think of it this way, if Paul "hated it", then everything will be solved.
First, Susie is so desperate, and she scared Paul a lot, and because of this, Paul compared his ex-wife with Susie and found his ex-wife much better, then he felt regret for getting a divorce with his wife. So instead of Susie letting Paul know what love is, she let him understand how much better off he was with his ex-wife. So if he had known Susie earlier (knowing that she was so desperate and ugly, etc.), he wouldn't have divorced with his wife (because his ex-wife was so much better).
Mystery solved.
To strengthen your concept, here is another reasoning game (maybe simpler).
Question time:
1) If I had left home earlier, I would have caught the first bus.
2) If I had left home earlier, I wouldn't have caught the first bus.
3) If I hadn't left home earlier, I would have caught the first bus.
4) If I hadn't left home earlier, I wouldn't have caught the first bus.
What does each sentence mean and what could be the cause and result of each?
Which ones have the same meaning, if any?
Results will be posted on Wednesday. Try your concept!