Their surname, thinly disguised, and their musical abilities on the violin and piano appear in the characters of Julius Delamayn and his wife. Often cited as Collins's first didactic work, Man and Wife attacks both Irish and Scottish marriage laws as well as arguing the case for a Married Woman's Property Act. In 1855, a clever young lawyer called Delamayn finds a loophole in the Irish marriage laws which enables John Vanborough to annul the marriage that stands in the way of his parliamentary ambitions.