During the planning of this painting Rockwell’s photographer made at least 70 photographic studies of the set-ups for it using: different men models; different women models; a man in a light-colored suit and hat; a man in a dark-colored suit and hat; the wife with her chin not down; and with her chin tucked down in a different position. Only one of the women models for this illustration has a floral pin attached to the right shoulder of her dress, although another one has a circle pin pinned at the right edge of the neckline of her dress.

In the final painting, Rockwell created a rather different and distinctive pin for the wife. At first glance the pin looks like a flower-form piece of costume jewelry. Upon closer inspection the pin ceases to look like a flower and instead looks like the form of a Japanese samurai warrior. And wouldn’t that little bit of fun make the real point of this illustration—that the wife, as contrite as she seems to appear, sitting quietly beside her rather stuffed-shirt husband, holding his hat and waiting for their appointment with the marriage counselor is really finding all of it rather funny. Indeed Rockwell’s final choice for the wife has her head tilted up so that she can look up from under her brows at the shiner she gave him. The right side of her mouth is slightly lifted as though she is smirking. Notice also that as she hold’s her husband’s derby hat, her right index finger is wrapped in a bandage–like a valiant samurai honorably wounded in battle.