4 P.M.
The best of it was , that neither objected in the least to the other 's proceedings , appearing , indeed , to consider them rather creditable than otherwise . Perhaps it would be as well if this principle of reciprocal free agency were somewhat extended , though not quite to the latitude to which they carried it . We can not send our wives about surrounded by a detachment of semiviri to keep the peace ; our climate is too uncertain , and influenza too prevalent , for us to watch their windows ourselves , as they do at Cadiz . Fancy mounting guard in Eaton Square at 4 P.M. , shrouded in a yellow fog , on the chance of surprising a forbidden morning visitor ! Supposing that we could adopt either of those methods , why should they prove more efficacious than they are said to be on their native soil ? If the British husband will allow nothing for the principles , charitably supposed by others to be inherent in the wife of his bosom -- nothing for the Damoclean damages hanging over the imaginary plotter against his peace -- why should he depreciate his own merits and powers so completely as to consider himself out of the lists altogether ? If he would only desist from making himself consistently disagreeable , I believe , in most cases , his substantial interest would be little endangered .