on the honesty and sincerity of sea-faring people, paying a particular
attention to his plate, and affecting a simper of approbation at
everything which he said, which by any means she could construe
into a joke, or with modesty be supposed to hear: nay, even when
he left decency on the left hand, which was often the case, she
ventured to reprimand his freedom of speech with a grin, saying,
"Sure you gentlemen belonging to the sea have such an odd way with
you." But all this complacency was so ineffectual, that, far from
suspecting the true cause of it, the commodore, that very evening,
at the club, in presence of her brother, with whom by this time he
could take any manner of freedom, did not scruple to d-- her for
a squinting, block-faced, chattering p-- kitchen; and immediately
after drank "Despair to all old maids." The toast Mr. Pickle
pledged without the least hesitation, and next day intimated to
his sister, who bore the indignity with surprising resignation, and
did not therefore desist from her scheme, unpromising as it seemed
to be, until her attention was called off, and engaged in another
care, which for some time interrupted the progress of this design.

Her sister had not been married many months, when she exhibited
evident symptoms of pregnancy, to the general satisfaction of all
concerned, and the inexpressible joy of Mrs. Grizzle, who, as we
have already hinted, was more interested in the preservation of the
family name than in any other consideration whatever. She therefore
no sooner discovered appearances to justify and confirm her hopes,
than, postponing her own purpose, and laying aside that pique and
resentment she had conceived from the behaviour of Mrs. Pickle,
when she superseded her authority; or perhaps, considering her in
no other light than that of the vehicle which contained, and was
destined to convey, her brother's heir to light, she determined to