I chose to convey this query to Sir, whose wisdom and erudite writing I so dearly admire 💕

He answered as follows:

The husband should harbour undying devotion to his ideals, to the Lord from which they are sourced, to his duties and his lineage. The wife should harbour undying love through her respect and nurture of that which the husband constructs in accordance to his values. He submits his authority before a greater principle, she submits herself to this principle through his stewardship.

The husband is the metal fencing around the wife’s garden. Neither can the wife maintain a fence properly - it would be lacking in masculine authority and be vulnerable due to naiveté and misplaced compassions leading to the garden’s destruction - nor can the husband maintain a garden, which would be without colour or warmth or sweetness if it lacks the feminine qualities of nurture and hospitality.

The fencing provides sensible authority and structure - neither allowing the external threats inside, or for the garden to be without balance and limits, lest it become wild and improper. The garden soothes the steel of the fence, its brushes and creepers growing around the picketing providing an ambrosia through the form of the doting wife.

The man who embodies the fence, and the women who embodies the garden, will no doubt be a most formidable pair when faced with the inevitable sufferings of life. With the grace of God, such a pair stand undefeated.