“I said, ‘You wouldn’t, if you knew as much about the process as I do.’
“‘Why not?’ he asked.
“‘Because, it’s not an honest process. It’s not a straight way for one sex to deal with the other.’
“He asked what I meant by that; but then, remembering the cautions of my great-aunt, I laughed. ‘If you are going to compel me to use the process, you can hardly expect me to tell you the secret of it.’
“‘Then there’s no use trying to talk,’ he said.
“‘Ah, but there is!’ I exclaimed. ‘You admit that I have ‘charm’—dozens of other men admitted it. And so it ought to count for something if I declare that I know it’s not an honest thing—that it depends upon trickery, and appeals to the worst qualities in a man. For instance, his vanity. “Flatter him,” Lady Dee used to say. “He’ll swallow it.” And he will—I never knew a man to refuse a compliment in my life. His love of domination. “If you want anything, make him think that he wants it!” His egotism. She had a bitter saying—I can hear the very tones of her voice: “When in doubt, talk about HIM.” That is what is called “charm”!’
“‘I don’t seem to feel it,’ he said.
“’ No, because now you are behind the scenes. But when you were in front, you felt it, you can’t deny. And you would feel it again, any time I chose to use it. But I want to know if there is not some honest way a woman can interest a man. The question really comes to this—Can a man love a woman for what she really is?’
“‘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.’