air from another. Esmond
saw this fault in her, as he saw many others--a bad wife would Beatrix
Esmond make, he thought, for any man under the degree of a Prince. She
was born to shine in great assemblies, and to adorn palaces, and to
command everywhere--to conduct an intrigue of politics, or to glitter in
a queen's train. But to sit at a homely table, and mend the stockings of
a poor man's children! that was no fitting duty for her, or at least
one that she wouldn't have broke her heart in trying to do. She was a
princess, though she had scarce a shilling to her fortune; and one
of her subjects--the most abject and devoted wretch, sure, that ever
drivelled at a woman's knees--was this unlucky gentleman; who bound his
good sense, and reason, and independence, hand and foot, and submitted
them to her.

And who does not know how ruthlessly women will tyrannize when they are
let to domineer? and who does not know how useless advice is? I could
give good counsel to my descendants, but I know they'll follow their own
way, for all their grandfather's sermon. A man gets his own experience
about women, and will take nobody's hearsay; nor, indeed, is the young
fellow worth a fig that would. 'Tis I that am in love with my mistress,
not my old grandmother that counsels me: 'tis I that have fixed the
value of the thing I would have, and know the price I would pay for
it. It may be worthless to you, but 'tis all my life to me. Had Esmond
possessed the Great Mogul's crown and all his diamonds, or all the Duke
of Marlborough's money, or all the ingots sunk at Vigo, he would have
given them all for this woman. A fool he was, if you will; but so is
a sovereign a fool, that will give half a principality for a little
crystal as big as a pigeon's egg, and called a diamond: so is a wealthy
nobleman a fool, that will face danger or death, and spend half his
life, and all his tranquillity, caballing for a blue ribbon; so is a
Dutch merchant a fool, that hath been known to pay ten thousand crowns
for a tulip. There's some particular prize we all of us value, and that
every man of spirit will venture his life for. With this, it may be
to achieve a great reputation for learning; with that, to be a man of
fashion, and the admiration of the town; with another, to consummate a
great work of art or poetry, and go to immortality that way; and with
another, for a certain time of his life, the sole object and aim is a
woman.

Whilst Esmond was under