Purely on this account he quarrelled violently with his brother's widow, and from that day the two families kept apart.
The chapter of quarrels was one of no small importance in Alfred's life; his difficult temper, and an ever-increasing sense of neglected merit, frequently put him at war with publishers, editors, fellow-authors, and he had an unhappy trick of exciting the hostility of men who were most likely to be useful to him.

With Mr Polo, for instance, who held him in esteem, and whose commercial success made him a valuable connection, Alfred ultimately broke on a trifling matter of personal dignity.

Later came the great quarrel with Clement Fadge, an affair of considerable advantage in the way of advertisement to both the men concerned.

It happened in the year 1873.

At that time Yule was editor of a weekly paper called The Balance, a literary organ which aimed high, and failed to hit the circulation essential to its existence.