'
I was shocked at his infatuation, and changed the subject, after
we had agreed to maintain a close correspondence for the future.
He then gave me to understand, that he had two neighbours, who,
like himself, were driven by their wives at full speed, in the
high road to bankruptcy and ruin. All the three husbands were of
dispositions very different from each other, and, according to
this variation, their consorts were admirably suited to the
purpose of keeping them all three in subjection. The views of the
ladies were exactly the same. They vied in grandeur, that is, in
ostentation, with the wife of Sir Charles Chickwell, who had four
times their fortune; and she again piqued herself upon making an
equal figure with a neighbouring peeress, whose revenue trebled
her own. Here then was the fable of the frog and the ox, realized
in four different instances within the same county: one large
fortune, and three moderate estates, in a fair way of being burst
by the inflation of female vanity; and in three of these
instances, three different forms of female tyranny were
exercised. Mr Baynard was subjugated by practising upon the
tenderness of his nature.
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