The end of all this was not merely food and shelter, a home and
children, it was the supremacy of a sex, its ability to shape life
to its whim. By means of this magic "charm"--a sort of perpetual
individual sex-strike--a woman turned her handicaps into advantages
and her chains into ornaments; she made herself a rare and wonderful
creature, up to whom men gazed in awe. It was "romantic love," but
preserved throughout life, instead of ceasing with courtship.
All the Castleman women understood these arts, and employed them.
There was Aunt Nannie, when she cracked her whip the dear old
bishop-lion would jump as if he had been shot! Did not the whole
State know the story of how once he had been called upon at a
banquet and had risen and remarked: "Ladies and gentlemen, I had
intended to make a speech to you this evening, but I see that my
wife is present, so I must beg you to excuse me." The audience
roared, and Aunt Nannie was furious, but poor dear Bishop Chilton
had spoken but the literal truth, that he could not spread the wings
of his eloquence in the presence of his "better half."
And with Major Castleman, though it seemed different, it was really
the same.
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