supplied by accident; for she had not lived four months in the
garrison, when she was seized with frequent qualms and retchings;
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. There was not a rare piece of furniture or apparel
for which she did not long; and one day, as she went to church,
seeing Lady Stately's equipage arrive, she suddenly fainted away.
Her husband, whose vanity had never been so perfectly gratified
as with this promised harvest of his own sowing, took the alarm
immediately; and in order to prevent relapses of that kind, which
might be attended with fatal consequence to his hope, gave her leave
to bespeak a coach, horses, and liveries, to her own liking. Thus
authorized, she in a very little time exhibited such a specimen
of her own taste and magnificence as afforded speculation to the
whole country, and made Trunnion's heart quake within him; because
he foresaw no limits to her extravagance which also manifested
itself in the most expensive preparations for her lying-in.

Her pride, which had hitherto regarded the representative of her
father's house, seemed now to lose all that hereditary respect,
and prompt her to outshine and undervalue the elder branch of her
family. She behaved to Mrs. Pickle with a sort of civil reserve
that implied a conscious superiority; and an emulation in point of
grandeur immediately commenced between the two sisters. She every
day communicated her importance to the whole parish, under pretence
of taking the air in her coach, and endeavoured to extend her