 many loud objections on his part;
and divers curious dialogues passed between him and his yoke-fellow, who always
came off victorious from the dispute; insomuch that his countenance gradually
fell; he began to suppress, and at length intirely devoured his chagrin; the
terrors of superior authority were plainly perceivable in his features, and in
less than three months he became a thorough-paced husband. Not that his
obstinacy was extinguished, tho' overcome; in some things he was as inflexible
and muleish as ever, but then he durst not kick so openly, and was reduced to
the necessity of being passive in his resentments. Mrs. Trunnion, for example,
proposed that a coach and six should be purchased, as she could not ride on
horseback, and the chaise was a scandalous carriage for a person of her
condition; the commodore, conscious of his own inferior capacity in point of
reasoning, did not think proper to dispute the proposal, but lent a deaf ear to
her repeated remonstrances, tho' they were inforced with every argument which
she thought could sooth, terrify, shame or decoy him into compliance: in vain
did she urge the excess of affection she had for him, as meriting some return of
tenderness and condescension; he was even proof against certain menacing hints
she gave, touching the resentment of a slighted woman; and he stood out against
all the considerations of dignity or disgrace, like a bulwark of brass. Neither
was he moved to any indecent or unkind expressions of contradiction, even when
she upbraided him with his sordid disposition, and put him in mind of the
fortune and honour he had acquired by his marriage, but seemed to retire within
himself, like a tortoise when attacked, that shrinks within its shell, and
silently endure the scourge of her reproaches, without seeming sensible of the
smart.
    This, however, was the only point in which she had been baffled since her
nuptials; and as she could by no means digest the miscarriage, she tortured her
invention for some new plan by which she might augment her influence and
authority: what her genius refused was supplied by accident; for she had not
lived four months in the garrison when she was seized with frequent qualms and
reachings, her breasts began to harden, and her stomach to be remarkably
prominent: in a word, she congratulated herself on the symptoms of her own
fertility, and the commodore was transported with joy, at the prospect of an
heir of his own begetting.
    She knew this was the proper season for vindicating her own sovereignty, and
accordingly employed the means which nature had put in her power
