¶ Bring to mind all the men and women you have known who waited ten, twenty or thirty years for the one they had given their hearts to. You will recall that they all had large bones or large joints for their bodies. Such people are always predominantly Osseous.

The loved one may marry but the bony man or woman remains faithful; it must be the one they want or none.

The Riddle Solved

¶ This fact accounts for some of the incongruous matches in middle or later life of old friends who seem to be unfitted to each other. Often one of them has waited many years for the other to consent, for children to grow up, or for Death to clear the way.

One Lover Through Life

¶ Osseous men and women are so constituted that it is practically impossible for them to love many times during a lifetime.

Bony people, even when young, have fewer sweethearts than other types. The large-boned boy or girl is usually ill at ease in the presence of the other sex, avoids social affairs, and does not attract love as early in life as other types do.

They suffer keenly from the near-ostracism resulting from this, but are powerless to change it.

Live Apart from Others

¶ Because they live more or less apart from their fellows, even as children, and tend to withdraw into themselves, the Osseous see little of the other sex, learn little about it and come to think of it as unapproachable.

As we have seen, the Alimentive feels at ease with the other sex, the Thoracic charms them, the Muscular cultivates them when he is in earnest, but the Osseous avoids them. If he does not marry he becomes more and more awkward in their presence as he grows older. Such a person will often go a block out of his way to avoid meeting a person of the opposite sex.

Marries Less Often

¶ This naturally leads to the unmated life which characterizes so many men and women of the Osseous type.

We asked you to recall the one or two Alimentive bachelors and spinsters you ever knew, the three or four Thoracics and the not more than half a dozen Musculars who didn't marry. But it will take some time to enumerate the Osseous people you know who have never married. This type constitutes a very large proportion of the unmarried.

Most Difficult to Live With

¶ When the Osseous does marry he is the most difficult of all types to live with, because he is inclined to be immovable and unbending.

To give and take has long been considered the secret of happy marriage and certainly is one of them. But this type finds it almost impossible to adapt himself to his mate. He wants everything in a certain way at a certain time and for a certain purpose. Whoever opposes him is pretty ruthlessly handled.

Another marital liability of this type is his disinclination and inability to make new friends. He contributes to the family circle only those few intimates he has had for years.

Likes to Dominate

¶ The Osseous is inclined to dominate and often to domineer over his mate and over his family in general. This is as true of the women as of the men. As we have seen, type and not sex is what causes the big distinctions between people.

The Hen-Pecked Husband

¶ Whenever you see a hen-pecked husband look at his wife. You will always find that she has either large joints, large bones or a square jaw.

Many times we have heard men declare "they would show such a wife how to act," but unless they could change her boniness they would find it difficult to "show her" much of anything.

The reason the husband of such a woman seldom resists is because he is nine times out of ten an Alimentive or a Cerebral—types that prefer to be bossed rather than to boss.

The same combination is usually present when the husband dominates the wife. He is almost invariably bony and she is either Alimentive or Cerebral. And other women say, "I'd like to show such a husband what I would do if he tried to tyrannize over ME as he does over her!" But such a woman often prefers a husband who relieves her of the responsibility of decisions, and two such people sometimes lead surprisingly happy lives together.

Mates for the Osseous

¶ Therefore the type best fitted to live in harmony with the predominantly Osseous is the predominantly Alimentive. Second choice is the predominantly Cerebral, for the reasons stated above. There is no third choice.

The pure Osseous and pure Thoracic should not marry because they are too far removed from each other in all their tendencies ever to understand each other.

The one type the pure Osseous should never mate with is his own. Nothing but trouble results when two of the extreme bony type marry, for each has definite views, desires and preferences—and neither can give in.