t other men, and have a complete change both
from office and home, consequently returning to both work and wife
refreshed and stimulated thereby.

When your cook has managed, by that occult secret of her own, to get the
locked tantalus open and it isn't consequently convenient or possible to
have any dinner at home, you remain calm, and break it to your lord on
the telephone, for can he not feast royally--yet economically--at the
club? And when you are away on a holiday he can do the same, and spend a
pleasant evening there afterward, instead of moping about alone in the
empty house. When you indulge in disagreements of a disturbing nature,
if ever you do, the same friendly haven is open to him, surely a more
comfortable thing for you than to have him maledicting about the house
while the little difference is cooling off. In short, there is no end to
the blessings and benefits of a man's club, and why in the world you
want to abolish them, dear ladies, I for one cannot imagine.

Of course the necessary moderation should be observed, as with all other
good things, and club nights once or twice a week should suffice. On
these occasions the wife can have a picnic dinner--always a joy to a
woman--with a book propped up before her, can let herself go and let her
cook go out. Or if she be of a strenuous turn she can utilise the free
evening to get her accounts and correspondence up to date. Or be her
habit gay she can go out on her own account and do a little dinner and
theatre with a discreet admirer, or even with a friend of her own sex.
Look at it how you will, a club, provided a man does not abuse it, is an
unalloyed blessing in married life.

But perhaps it is the tragic fate of the wives in question not to be
able to trust their husbands, and with cause. Perhaps their hearts hold
sorrowful knowledge of betrayal, and they fear that the club may be used
to shield an evening spent in company less desirable from the wifely
point of view. Even so, the club is a blessing, for at least a woman can
_hope_ and try to believe her husband _is_ really there, whilst if he
has no club to go to, the transparency of his alternative excuse must
give colour to her worst suspicions. If a man is resolved to do this
sort of thing, nothing can stop him; should one pretext to spend his
time away from home fail, he will put forward another, and the less
chance his wife has of discovering the real state of affairs the better
for her peace of