To take infinite precautions, they
complained, against the juvenile perusal of such eminently
innocuous literature was like reading the Riot Act on an
uninhabited island. Both reviews suffered a serious falling-off
in circulation and influence. Peace hath its devastations as well
as war.
The wives of noted public men formed another element of
discomfiture which the young Duke had almost entirely left out of
his calculations. It is sufficiently embarrassing to keep abreast
of the possible wobblings and veerrings-round of a human husband,
who, from the strength or weakness of his personal character, may
leap over or slip through the barriers which divide the parties;
for this reason a merciful politician usually marries late in
life, when he has definitely made up his mind on which side he
wishes his wife to be socially valuable. But these trials were as
nothing compared to the bewilderment caused by the Angel-husbands
who seemed in some cases to have revolutionized their outlook on
life in the interval between breakfast and dinner, without
premonition or preparation of any kind, and apparently without
realizing the least need for subsequent explanation.
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