The Col: Those other neighbors were women, and they obviously didn't want to speak to me. They would quickly leave if they were there when I got home. I saw that behaviour as evidence my wife was not exaggerating or being oversensitive.

Gallantly rushing to their homes to tell them off wouldn't have accomplished anything. They undoubtedly would have lied to my face and claimed I was being a bully. As it turned out there was no need to intervene, because my wife was able to deal with it. And I was proud of her for standing up to them... but I guess that's just me.

By the way, I did get a chance to meet their husbands sometime afterwards. The subject never came up. Either they were unaware of what their wives had been doing, or they didn't care. NIce enough guys, but probably didn't know what was happening on the homefront. I only knew about it because my wife told me.