Next day there was a hesitant knock-on the door.

"Father?" asked Mrs. Bennet timidly.

"Come in Fanny." Said Mr. Gardiner reassuringly. He was sitting on his desk, working through some papers. He gestures Mrs. Bennet to sit, makes some notes and keeps the papers aside.

"Now tell me fanny. How are you today?" he asks breaking the silence.

"I am good father." She answered quietly.

"Good – good" he mumbled "and have you thought anything about what we discussed yesterday?" Mr. Gardiner asked.

"I did father" she said "and I am willing to learn to save. But I don't know anything about saving and I don't know if Thomas will help." She finished earnestly with a hint of desperation in her voice.

"Calm down fanny." Mr. Gardiner said in deep calm voice "It's okay. I will help you." He assured her. "Firstly, you should know that I was going through the Longbourn papers."

"Oh! and you found a way to break the entail." Mrs. Bennet interrupted her father excitedly.

"No Fanny. Entails cannot break so easily. Otherwise, no one will take pain to create one." Mr. Gardiner said.

"Oh. Then I don't want to talk about it. It is so unfair." lamented Mrs. Bennet.

"Fanny, please calm down. You should know about the entail. Otherwise, how will you protect your daughter's rights?"

"Oh! What rights do they have?" she wondered.

"I was reading the papers to know that. You know as Longbourn's trustee we have a copy of all pertaining papers. I was refreshing my memory as I wanted to know the type of entail on Longbourn." Mr. Gardiner said.

"Type?" questioned Mrs. Bennet.

"Yes. But instead of discussing all the types of entails, and confuse you, I will tell you what pertains to Longbourn."

"Okay."

"Firstly, it defaults on male line. Which means that if you don't have a son, it will pass on to the line of second son. Since Thomas does not have a brother, it will pass in his uncle's line." Mr. Gardiner explained.

"Secondly, as Thomas told me, you will have right to dowager house in your lifetime. Rest of the estate gets transferred. It cannot be sold or mortgaged. Hence, if you are ever in debt, you cannot sell estate to come out of it." He continued. "I hope you understand?" Mr. Gardiner asked.

"Er yes! I think I do. The estate goes to relative. My daughters and I get dowager house. But what about our possessions? The furniture? The art work? My silverware? And my Jewelry?" she finished frantically, clutching at her chain.

"Relax Mrs. Bennet. It is not so bad. Your possessions are yours to do as you please. According to what I have read, you cannot leave the estate bare; but you only need to put aside 100 pounds every year for any emergency on estate, which thankfully Thomas has done. Anything you or Thomas have bought out of estate profit, while Thomas is its master is yours to do as you will. However, you need to submit receipts every year which both of you have not done. So, at present, all the books, furniture, art work, everything can be contested as part of the estate. It depends upon the generosity of the heir."

Mrs. Bennet started crying hearing that.

Mr. Gardiner stood up and fetched a glass of water. He gave it to her while caressing her hair. "Hush Fanny. Don't worry. It will be all fine. You will see. It is true that you have not saved anything in these 5 years but it is more important that you are willing to learn and save now." he murmured.

After Mrs. Bennet calm down, she says "I want to save. But I don't know how or how much? From where should I start and where should I invest?"

"Calm down fanny. I will explain. If you want to write, you can or if you have any questions, I will explain again." After receiving a nod, he continued "See there are different levels of savings and standard of living. First is if you live above your means. In this situation people incur huge debts and are generally worst of than from where they started, sometimes even selling everything they have and living in hedgerows as you are fond of saying or poorhouses."

"Do we live above our means?" She asked scared.

"No daughter, luckily for you, you have no debt. It is the second level you should be worried about. Second is if you live within your means but don't prepare for future. Sadly, this is your situation. Today you may live in comfort and continue to do so if nothing changes, but if something unfavorable happens, something even like a bad harvest for a year or two, can make you poor. And in light of entailment this is definitely not the way you should be living".

"Third there are those who save a small percentage of their income. They are prepared for unfavorable circumstances but not tragedies. For example, if you start saving 10 % of Longbourn's income and interest on your settlement, you save 400 pounds a year. In 10 years, it will be 4000 pounds. So, if something happens to Thomas, you will have 9000 pounds and income of 360 pounds. You will have to live with your siblings but you can take of care of other expenses, like food clothing etc."

Mrs. Bennet thought furiously. "And what if I want my own house?" she asked.

"Well, the solution is in different level of living frugally. You can save a larger percent. Some people save more than they spend. Some live with very basic things and save the rest. The more amount you save, more interest you incur and after a decade it becomes a hefty amount."

"So how much can I save?" asked Mrs. Bennet.

"It totally depends upon you. Let take the example of furniture. Say you are happy with the furniture and furnishings of Longbourn which you updated last year. How much do you spend on furnishings each year?" asked Mr. Gardiner

"Around 500 pounds." Said Mrs. Bennet sheepishly.

"So, if you don't change it for next decade and seeing as you are married and your children young, you really don't need to update it every year. Change it a year before Jane's come-out and you save around 6000 pounds." "Add interest on it and this account alone can provide dowry for Jane and may be Elizabeth even" he finished.

Mrs. Bennet was shocked.

"Have you made a list of estimates of where you have spent 1400 pounds in last year?" asked Mr. Gardiner.

"Yes, here.

500 pounds on redecoration

500 pounds on food and parties.

100 pounds on salaries

300 pounds on cloths" recited Mrs. Bennet.

"Well, if you live very frugally, your mother spent 200 pounds on household expenses, that too with 5 members. If it helps, start thinking you only have 500 pounds a year income. That is more than what I earned or what brothers earns. Keep your whole budget in this amount. Also, Thomas' expenses are taken care by himself. You will save 800 - 1000 pound a year like this. We will invest it in 5% and not touch the interest. In 10 years, you should have another 10,000 to 12000 pounds in addition to your dowry. Will give your daughters nearly 4000 pounds dowry too."

Mrs. Bennet said, "I can run household on 500 pounds. But even after saving for 10 years I will not even have 200 pounds income per head."

Mr. Gardiner stared at her "And if you don't save, they will have no dowry and only 50 pounds per head."

Mrs. Bennet blanched. "I will do as you say. But is there any way to increase the savings. What if something happened to Mr. Bennet before 10 years?" asked Mrs. Bennet anxiously.

"You really cannot do anything about how long Thomas will live. But maybe we can increase your income. 5 years back Longbourn earned excess of 3000 pounds a year. If we can make Thomas take care of Longbourn diligently that's another 1000 pounds a year."

Mrs. Bennet scoffed "Mr. Bennet is not going to move from his study. We will need a miracle for that."

"Have patience daughter, miracles do happen. Afterall, you agreed to save and not spend." He laughed.