WHY MISTRESSES OF EQUAL STATUS THREATENED THE SOCIAL ORDER

Why had her mother, and women of aristocratic status - members of Jamaican society and of the British peerage, accept that men were possibly not capable of fidelity.  For that matter, why did men also accept that the woman they married would not be the only one for them?  Is sex really meaningless?

From Chapter 7 again, page 59

It always futile to judge people by the rules of another time, and the values of that age certainly seem breathtakingly hypocritical  and unreasonable from a contemporary viewpoint, until one examines what motivated them and realizes that their objective was preservation of the family unit and conservation of the social fabric. Divorce was still something to be avoided at all costs, not only because of the disruption to family and social life, but also because it usually undermined the financial foundation of a divorced couple. As few marriages were conducted across class and colour lines, choice was also restricted, and there seemed little merit in 'swapping a black dog for a monkey' , as Jamaicans used to say. Therefore a mistress like Miss Khouri (her relatives's mistress of equal status to the family), being wife material, was a living, breathing, throbbing threat to the social order, while a girlfriend like Mrs. Powell (her fatther's supposed mistress) was not.

Commentary: Lady Colin Powell states in her book that her father, Michael, often openly declared that he had never looked at another woman other than his wife, their mother, though many knew of his sexual adventures. However, she realized that he was also signaling to his wife, Gloria, that he was not contemplating actually divorcing.

Page 60

,,, Gloria's ascendancy over Michael was reinforced by the fact that he was more emotionally involved with her than she was with him...