If you ever hear a man boast of his determination to rule his own house, you may feel sure that he is subdued.

And a henpecked husband always makes a great show of opposing everything that looks toward the enlargement of the work or privileges of women.

Such a man insists on the shadow of authority because he can not have the substance.

It is a great satisfaction to him that his wife can never be president, and that she can not make speeches in prayer-meeting.

While he retains these badges of superiority, he is still in some sense head of the family.
So when Mrs.Anderson loyally reminded her husband that she had always let him have his own way, he believed her because he wanted to, though he could not just at the moment recall the particular instances.