On the other hand, the married woman, no matter to what lengths her husband might carry his ill-usage, knew well that there was no redress for her anywhere. Unhappy wives sometimes in the madness of despair fled from their homes in the most shocking plight, only to be remorselessly dragged back by their father, brother, or cousins, as a result of the appalling freemasonry between men. To rely on her own mother was out of the question for a wife; the two women belonged to two distinct houses, with a barrier, a great gulf fixed between them. In the early days of wedlock a husband, not to appear a tyrant, and because he was in no way inconvenienced, would allow his wife now and then to visit her mother; but he contrived that these visits became gradually rarer, and when he was not at home, a wife careful of her repose and dignity would never cross her mother’s threshold without first writing to him: “If it be your good pleasure, I would fain go.” That was a woman’s life. As it was not all smiles and rosewater, there was good reason for marrying the girls off early, before they had learned to care one way or another, their equipment being a few simple maxims inculcating obedience, and some odds and ends of medical knowledge. Wives who owed their training to Vivès could not but be very unhappy, according to the principles of marriage held by Vivès himself. For Vivès not merely approved of early marriages, he was also one of those who believed that the wife was created for the husband, and an irresponsible and inferior being; he looked at the husband as someone to bring her out. Erasmus, Bouchet, Dolce himself, nay, everybody had much the same impression. The supremacy of the husband was the sacred ark; bold indeed would be the person who dared lift a hand to it! So in modern times we have seen aesthetes, like Ruskin, capable of every possible audacity but that. Ruskin does not understand women, and yet he has gone out of his way to exalt their rôle in the world; but, as soon as he comes face to face with the husband, he loses countenance, his candour vanishes, his words become cold and colourless.