By mid January the situation had become so bad that Elizabeth felt compelled to write to her aunt Gardiner for advice.
There were two developments worthy of note, but Elizabeth did not know what to make of it and afraid to do more harm than good she was left in a state of indecision she was not used to and which greatly strained her nerves.
That she had even thought of talking of her nerves was cause for worry, Elizabeth sometimes thought to herself.
The first thing that confused her was her father's sudden and complete distaste for any of his family. As far she, Mary and Kitty could conjecture it was all down to their mother's insistence that Lydia be provided with a dowry. A reasonable request, the girls all agreed, but a futile one since there were no savings to use for said dowry. Why their mother insisted and continued to do so, they could not understand. Money, after all, did not grow on trees.
The second thing was their mother's insistence that they will make adjustments until they had enough to cover Lydia's dowry. What that meant, they did not dare speculate. That their mother would ever be inclined to curtail her extravagant spending was not something they could ever envisage.
-`o´-
"Edward, have you decided what you shall do? There is no time to waste!"
"My dear, I will go to Longbourn. I do not know how much I can help, but you know I will try."
"Elizabeth and her sisters need our help. Even Fanny needs your help!"
"Indeed they do, but we have to proceed with caution, elsewise we'll do more harm than good."
"Can you believe that your sister intends to save three hundred pounds each year to constitute a small portion for Lydia?"
"No, indeed. I had to pinch myself a few times to be sure I am not dreaming."
"How many times have we not tried to convince them to save or invest at least one hundred per year for our nieces! Even if they put it in the four percent, there would have been a little something to help them when their father passed away!"
"Next Tuesday I will travel to Longbourn. I will try to convince our brother it is in everybody's best interest to accede to my sister's wishes on the matter, especially since she is so sensible in what she wishes for. More than this, I cannot say what will happen. I do not know what I will find on my arrival!"
-`o´-
True to his word, Mr. Gardiner traveled to Longbourn to try to reason with Mr. Bennet. Mrs. Bennet's idea was rather simple. Since one daughter was as good as married, but could not be because she did not have a dowry, then a dowry must be found for her.
She applied to her husband who told her flatly that there was no money set aside for the purpose of bribing young men to marry his daughters. She then said they must set aside some money each year from their income, so in two or three years Lydia would have her dowry.
Mr. Bennet just laughed at her, reminded her that she insisted on spending the money on dinner parties and dresses and so she should do her best with the household accounts.
Not being used to a Mr. Bennet who would not give her what she wanted right away, Mrs. Bennet took to coming into his book room all the time and haraguining him to enact changes. It was unsupportable to her that her favourite daughter should have to wait to be married and her father cared nothing for the plight of his own child!
In the midst of such family fracas arrived Mr. Gardiner one dull January afternoon.
-`o´-
As expected, Mr. Gardiner's visit with his brother Bennet had not gone well. Mrs. Bennet apparently wanted to see the books for the estate to see where they could cut their expenses.
As far as her husband was concerned she could do what she wanted with the household accounts, but he was going to manage the estate, not his wife. Mr. Gardiner understood the sentiments and agreed with Mr. Bennet, for the most part. He wouldn't have trusted his sister either to make decisions regarding the running of the estate.
However, he pointed out, his sister was also in the right. How would she be able to know how much they could save if she did not know how much they actually have?
They did not get much farther before they were called to dinner.
Mrs. Bennet was in high spirits. She was sure that everything will be arranged to her satisfaction now that her brother was here and it only remained for her to plan a grand wedding breakfast that will be the talk of the neighbourhood for years to come.
Her husband allowed her to talk on without interruption while the servants remained.
But when they had withdrawn, he said to her: "Mrs. Bennet, before you put into motion all these grand plans for your daughter, let us come to a right understanding: I am the master of Longbourn and nothing will be done which I did not approve of myself. Not a penny will be spent otherwise."
He would then have gone back to eating but for his wife's vociferous exclamations of horror.
"Let us see what our daughters think of it, my dear. What say you, Mary? For you are a young lady of deep reflection, I know, and read great books and make extracts. Should we all curtail our expenses with the purpose of providing a dowry for your younger sister?
Should you, in short, like to only have one new dress a year and think it right that we invite our neighbours less, which will in turn diminish our consequence in the neighbourhood?"
Mary blushed to be addressed by her father, for he almost never talked to her, but thought about his questions and how she should best answer. It was mostly a matter of explaining her reasoning to him, for she already knew what her answer would be.
"While Mary is adjusting her ideas," he continued without giving her any time at all, "let us return to our dinner."
"Yes, father," Mary answered, taking everybody by surprise. "We should cut as much of our expenses as possible so our sister would have a dowry and be allowed to marry."
"You would renounce your dresses and your books for your sister?" Mr. Bennet asked, a little surprised and more than a little mocking.
"I care not for such trappings, father, and the Holy Book is all one needs. The Scripture teaches us we should slaughter the fattened calf for one who comes back into the fold. Lydia wants to put away her childish things and I, of course, rejoice in having my sister returned to me as our Lord intended."
"Oh, Mary," Mrs. Bennet exclaimed, beaming at her middle child. For a moment she had been afraid Mary would prove herself contrary, as she and Lydia had never been good friends.
"What about me?" asked Kitty. "Will I have a dowry too?"
"Of course, Kitty," Elizabeth assured her right away. "We will save dowries for all of us. How much do you think we can put aside each year, mama?"
"Oh, I'm sure I do not know, but it must be at least three hundred and very likely more!"
There was a moment of quiet and then Kitty spoke again.
"If it is so easy, why do we not have our portions already? Why, if you put aside three hundred a year for the past twenty years, we would have had more than a thousand each!"
"It comes to this, does it not? Am I to set aside money to bribe young men to take my daughters off my hands?"
"What if we do not marry? How will we live after you are dead, father?"
"Your uncles would take care of you all, Mary, that is no concern of yours."
There was something in the way he said that did not sit well with Elizabeth. She saw her uncle Gardiner frowning, looking intently at her father. They both must have come to the same conclusion at the same time, as they both looked at each other in shock: Mr. Bennet intended to make his wife's family responsible for the welfare of all of them without any help from the estate.
-`o´-
Author note:
Mangosmum
Thank you for putting the sums into present day money! It helps to have a reference.
In case you did not read the comment, here it is:
"The time period is roughly 1811 so that 14 pounds is the equivalent of 1,400 pounds in today's money and certainly an amount that Wickham could never repay on militia pay."
About Wickham and how much money he wasted, I calculated like this: Darcy said that about 5 years ago from when they met in Hunsford Wickham received 4K (inheritance + money for giving up the rights to the living).
For 3 years he did his thing, then he was back to ask for more money.
Mrs. Gardiner says at the end that his debts were 'considerably more than a thousand pounds'.
I've decided that 1500 is about right. So he spent 1500 pounds of money he did not have in 2 years. That's about 60 pounds per month, give or take. This is how I came to how much he owed in town and to his fellow officers.
I can kind of see why he didn't want to be a parson - he wouldn't have had so much cash to spare, most likely.
Guest who asked why Elizabeth doesn't press the issue of better manners: I modeled Mrs. Bennet after my elementary school aged kid. You cannot push too hard, otherwise she won't do anything at all. You have to go step by step, have patience, and accept that you might not accomplish everything you want to :)
Guest who asked why don't people of Meryton ask the Gardiners to find out about Wickham: This is the question, isn't it? Even though Wickham himself was unknown, they could, if they wanted to, find out everything about him. No one tries though. And why is that? Because he was charming and polite to one and all. He had all the appearance of goodness, right? Who would be so heartless to question his story?
Guest who asked about Mr. Bennet barring Elizabeth from his study: He's kind of mad at Lizzy for the moment. It will become more clear as the story progresses.
Guest who said the story is nice: Thank you! It's great to hear that people like it :)
Guest Colleen S: Yep. The Bennet family's situation was untenable and it only took a small push to take them into uncharted waters, so to speak.
Guest Lisa: Mrs. Bennet in the book was silly to the end, but that cannot be a sin, at least not as far as I'm concerned. Mr. Bennet was… always doing what made life easier for him. Being forced to confront his many failures must be rather unpleasant.
Wickham deserves a few stories in which he doesn't get the girl and he doesn't get the money, doesn't he? I'm happy to assist :)
Guest Seringat: The suggestion for Lydia to take over the perfume business is great. I must say I never thought of this. There is another comment who asks about it and I will consider it.
Mrs. Bennet is great at being stubborn when she gets something in her head, so I'm sure she'll manage to do something for her girls.
I don't think you are harsh to Darcy. He really is finding excuses to not do something about Wickham, although it's not clear to me if it is because they have been friends when they were kids or because he just doesn't care about what happens to other people.
Guest Lilo: Thank you! I hope you'll enjoy the rest as well :)