The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle Volume 1 Chapter 10

In which the commodore’s lady, emboldened by the seeming promise of offspring, asserts her dominion through ostentatious indulgence and social manoeuvres, pursuing her desires with an unrelenting spirit that tests the commodore’s patience and purse. Yet, through a series of mystifying events culminating in a mirage of motherhood, the couple is plunged into an agonising chasm of hope and disappointment that shakes the foundations of their domestic concord.