So the author discusses a wife's behavior toward a husband when laboring under disappointment or vexatious accidents; sleeping in different beds; how a woman should act when finding that her husband harbors unjust suspicions of her virtue; the great indiscretion of taking too much notice of the unmeaning or transient gallantries of a husband; the methods which a wife is justified to take after supporting for a long time a complication of all manner of ill-usage from a husband; and other causes or effects of marital infelicity. Though marriage almost inevitably terminates in a "brulée," the wife should spare no efforts to ameliorate her husband's faults. "If addicted to drinking, she must take care to have his cellar well stor'd with the best and richest wines, and never seem averse to any company he shall think fit to entertain:--If fond of women, she must endeavour to convince him that the virtuous part of the sex are capable of being as agreeable companions as those of the most loose principles;--and this, not by arguments, for those he will not listen to;--but by getting often to her house, the most witty, gay, and spirituous of her acquaintance, who will sing, dance, tell pleasant stories, and take all the freedoms that innocence allows" (p. 163). Occasionally the advice to married women is very practical, as the following deterrent from gluttony shows: "I dined one day with a lady, who the whole time she employ'd her knife and fork with incredible swiftness in dispatching a load of turkey and chine she had heap'd upon her plate, still kept a keen regard on what she had left behind, greedily devouring with her eyes all that remain'd in the dish, and throwing a look of envy on every one who put in for the smallest share.--My advice to such a one is, that she would have a great looking-glass fix'd opposite the seat she takes at table; and I am much mistaken, if the sight of herself in those grim attitudes I have mention'd, will not very much contribute to bring her to more moderation" (p. 276). The method of "The Husband, in Answer to the Wife" (1756) is similar to that of its companion-piece; in fact, much of the same advice is merely modified or amplified to suit the other sex. The husband is warned to avoid drinking to excess and some other particulars which may happen to be displeasing to his spouse, such as using too much freedom in his wife's presence with any of her female acquaintance. He is instructed in the manner in which it will be most proper for a married man to carry himself towards the maidservants of his family, and also the manner of behavior best becoming a husband on a full detection of his wife's infidelity. As in "The Wife" the path of marriage leads but to divorce. One is forcibly reminded of Hogarth's "Marriage à la Mode."