In Bengal there were […] many female zemindars, or village revenue administrators, who were, however, subject to the influence, but not to the authority, of the male members of their family.

But Mr Pecksniff, dismissing all ephemeral considerations of social pleasure and enjoyment, concentrated his meditations on the one great virtuous purpose before him, of casting out that ingrate and deceiver, whose presence yet troubled his domestic hearth, and was a sacrilege upon the altars of his household gods.

a sofic subshift

lith and limb;  out of lith