g. She was violent, threatening
him with the tongs; she was careless of his honor, driving him to insult
the mistress whom she had driven him to betray and to discard; worst of
all, she was hopelessly inconsequent in word and thought and deed, now
lulling him with reconciliations, and anon flaming forth again with the
original anger. Pepys had not used his wife well; he had wearied her
with jealousies, even while himself unfaithful; he had grudged her
clothes and pleasures, while lavishing both upon himself; he had abused
her in words; he had bent his fist at her in anger; he had once blacked
her eye; and it is one of the oddest particulars in that odd Diary of
his, that, while the injury is referred to once in passing, there is no
hint as to the occasion or the manner of the blow. But now, when he is
in the wrong, nothing can exceed the long-suffering affection of this
impatient husband. While he was still sinning and still undiscovered, he
seems not to have known a touch of penitence stronger than what might
lead him to take his wife to the theatre, or for an airing, or to give
her a new dress, by way of compensation. Once found out, however, and he
seems to himself to have lost all claim to decent usage. It is perhaps
the strongest instance of his externality. His wife may do what she
pleases, and though he may groan, it will never occur to him to blame
her; he has no weapon left but tears and the most abject submission. We
should perhaps have respected him more had he not given away so
utterly,--above all, had he refused to write, under his wife's dictation,
an insulting letter to his unhappy fellow-culprit, Miss Willet; but
somehow I believe we like him better as he was.

The death of his wife, following so shortly after, must have stamped the
impression of this episode upon his mind. For the remaining years of his
long life we have no Diary to help us, and we have seen already how
little stress is to be laid upon the tenor of his correspondence; but
what with the recollection of the catastrophe of his married life, what
with the natural influence of his advancing years and reputation, it
seems not unlikely that the period of gallantry was at an end for Pepys;
and it is beyond a doubt that he sat down at last to an honored and
agreeable old age among his books and music, the correspondent of Sir
Isaac Newton, and in one instance at least, the poetical counsellor of
Dryden. Through all this period, that Dia