“‘I should say,’ he said, ‘that it depends upon the woman.’

“I admitted this was a plausible answer.  ’But you loved me, when I made myself a mystery to you.  But now that I am honest with you, you have made it clear that you don’t like it, that you won’t have it.  And that is the problem that women have to face.  It is a fact that the women of our family have always ruled the men; but they’ve done it by indirection—­nobody ever thought seriously of “women’s rights” in Castleman County.  But you see, women have rights; and somehow or other they will fool the men, or else the men must give up the idea that they are the superior sex, and have the right, or the ability, to rule women.’

“Then I saw how little he had followed me.  ’There has to be a head to the family,’ he said.

“I answered, ’There have been cases in history of a king and queen ruling together, and getting along very well.  Why not the same thing in a family?’

“’That’s all right, so far as the things of the family are concerned.  But such affairs as business and politics are in the sphere of men; and women cannot meddle in them without losing their best qualities as women.’

“And so there we were.  I won’t repeat his arguments, for doubtless you have read enough anti-suffrage literature.  The thing I noticed was that if I was very tactful and patient, I could apparently carry him along with me; but when the matter came up again, I would discover that he was back where he had been before.  A woman must accept the guidance of a man; she must take the man’s word for the things that he understands.  ‘But suppose the man is wrong?’ I said; and there we stopped—­there we shall stop always, I begin to fear.  I agree with him that woman should obey man—­so long as man is right!”

4.  Her letters did not all deal with this problem.  In spite of the sewing, she found time to read a number of books, and we argued about these.  Then, too, she had been probing her young doctor, and had made interesting discoveries about him.  For one thing, he was full of awe and admiration for her; and her awakening mind found material for speculation in this.

“Here is this young man; he thinks he is a scientist, he rather prides himself upon being cold-blooded; yet a cunning woman could twist him round her finger.  He had an unhappy love-affair when he was young, so he confided to me; and now, in his need and loneliness, a beautiful woman is transformed into something supernatural in his imagination—­she is like a shimmering soap-bubble, that he blows with his own breath.  I know that I could never get him to see the real truth about me; I might tell him that I have let myself be tied up in a golden net—­but he would only marvel at my spirituality.  Oh, the women I have seen trading upon the credulity of men!  And when I think how I did this myself!  If men were wise, they would give us the vote, and a share in the world’s work—­anything that would bring us out into the light of day, and break the spell of mystery that hangs round us!