u? Not at first possibly, but it certainly will be. The time
may even come when Perseus may raise his voice and roar out his
disapproval of Persephone. A certain type of man always shouts when
annoyed, not at his friends or clients of course; merely to his clerks
and his servants and his wife and the people who are afraid of him. This
was a nasty habit of our grandfathers--modern wives are hardly meek
enough to stand much of it. However, if Perseus by some freak of atavism
ever should so far forget himself in this way, Persephone will find the
Biblical soft answer more efficacious than the loudest returning volume
of sound. To speak in an exaggeratedly gentle voice always shames the
shouter of either sex into silence.

Courtesy is more necessary between husband and wife than in any other
relation in life. A great deal of bitterness would be saved if this were
studiously remembered. Nothing is more painful than to hear a married
couple _being rude_ to one another, and the claims of courtesy would
prevent all sorts of remarks that belong to the category of the
better-left-unsaid. Women, especially, have sometimes a most
objectionable habit of hurling home-truths at their husband's head
whenever temper runs a little high; and most men are sensitive enough
under their shield of cultivated indifference to resent this acutely,
and remember stinging sentences of this kind for years. The fact that
they are generally pointedly true does not make them less objectionable.
Some wives who are in reality devoted to their husbands, nevertheless
make a point of invariably belittling them in private and public, and,
though he would rarely admit it, this takes the heart out of a man more
than one unversed in the hearts of men could possibly believe. The truth
is, men like admiration and praise just as much as women do, though it
is part of their strange code to conceal this. They resent a snub just
as bitterly as a woman does; why shouldn't they?

And while we are on this subject, let me whisper to Persephone what a
wonderfully soothing effect a little judicious flattery has on the race
of husbands, and how smoothly it makes the marital wheels go round.
I don't mean false, blatant, absurd flattery, such as men often bestow
on us when desirous to please, not realising that compliments laid on
with a trowel are an insult to one's intelligence. Nothing of that kind,
of course, but delicate, subtle, loving flattery. An attitude of gentle
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