Had he survived his marriage by many years, they would have quarrelled fiercely, or, he would infallibly have been a henpecked husband, of which sort there were a few specimens still extant a hundred years ago.
The truth is, little Madam Esmond never came near man or woman, but she tried to domineer over them.

If people obeyed, she was their very good friend; if they resisted, she fought and fought until she or they gave in.

We are all miserable sinners that's a fact we acknowledge in public every Sunday--no one announced it in a more clear resolute voice than the little lady.

As a mortal, she may have been in the wrong, of course; only she very seldom acknowledged the circumstance to herself, and to others never.

Her father, in his old age, used to watch her freaks of despotism, haughtiness, and stubbornness, and amuse himself with them.
She felt that his eye was upon her; his humour, of which quality she possessed little herself, subdued and bewildered her.