"it's enough for you," retorted mr. cruncher, "to be the wife of a honest tradesman, and not to occupy your female mind with calculations when he took to his trade or when he didn't. a honouring and obeying wife would let his trade alone altogether. call yourself a religious woman? if you're a religious woman, give me a irreligious one! you have no more nat'ral sense of duty than the bed of this here thames river has of a pile, and similarly it must be knocked into you."