A/N: This is the second of three new chapters this week, so be sure you didn't miss Chapter 18. They are in response to the thousands of PMs I have received demanding more chapters about budgets and accounting, but you can skip them if you find them too dry. All you really need to know about this one is that Lizzy is schooling her mother and sisters, who don't realize how good they have it, on what things cost and what most people earn in Regency England. But if you do decide to skip it, please let me know in a review or PM that you did, so I can get a feel for whether I should cut these chapters out. I realize that my readers are lovely people who don't want to hurt my feelings, but I need to know what you don't like as well as what you like. Also, I recently started using Microsoft Word, and I've noticed that sometimes errors are introduced when the website software converts it for display in a browser. I do my best to catch errors, but when the chapters are eight or nine thousand words like this one, it's easy to miss something. So please, don't be shy about reporting errors of any kind in a review or PM.
The next chapter will be the last one about money, and then we'll get back to the fun stuff.
This chapter: The Domestic Economy book Lizzy uses in this chapter is real, and you can read it online and/or download it to your PC. Since it is 200 years old, it's in the public domain, so it's completely free and legal to download it. And if you get it from the source I give below, which is the Google Books website, you can be assured that it contains no viruses or malware. You may find it interesting to follow along with Lizzy's lesson, or just browse through it to learn more about Regency England, but of course you don't need to do either to enjoy my story.
This website deletes "real" links to prevent spam, so in your search engine (e.g. Google or Bing or DuckDuckGo), type the following with no spaces until after the "com," replacing the words for punctuation with their symbols:
site colon books dot google dot com Colburn 1827 "practical domestic economy"
You should see several entries for "A New System of Practical Domestic Economy" dated 1827. The one that Lizzy will be using is the first entry (at least, it is for me. I've read that Google sometimes changes the order of results, using some arcane algorithm based on other things you do with Google, so if something looks wrong, you might have to go down the list of search results until the book you find looks right). If you're interested, you can do the search without the "1827" and then your results will include the third edition of the book, dated 1823. But the prices in that differ very little from the 1827 edition, and whoever was running the copy machine that day evidently had a bad hangover, because some of the pages are blurry or even cut off. I haven't found the first or second editions, so by my authorial majesty, I hereby declare that the first edition was published in 1811, just in time for Lizzy's lesson, and we'll assume the prices were about the same then, too. (The most authoritative study I've found on that question, Research Paper 99/20 from the British government, shows that prices were almost exactly the same in 1823 as they were in 1795, but that in between they were all over the place, due to the war with Napoleon starting and stopping and starting and stopping, the "year without summer" that decimated crop yields and drove prices up, the "Corn Laws" that restricted imports to prop up grain prices, growing industrialization and urbanization, etc. Inflation was up 36.5% in 1800, then down 23% in 1802, then up 16.2% in 1805, etc. But you can drive yourself crazy trying to account for everything.)
Back to your search page. Click on the first entry, and it should take you to a page with the book's title, and a bright red button that says "READ EBOOK." If you click on it, you can read the book online. If you DON'T click on it but just move your cursor onto it, it will pop up a little panel that has "Download EPUB, PDF" near the bottom. If you click on that "PDF" you will download your very own bookmarked and searchable copy of the book, which I find much easier to navigate than the online version. (The downloadable EPUB is a mess, so don't bother). Windows has a PDF reader built into Edge, but you will have a better experience using a free PDF reader like Acrobat Reader or Sumatra. Note: I'm assuming you're using a PC with Windows or Linux or MacOS. I know nothing about smartphones except how to call somebody (and I continue to hope that one day, somebody will call me), but I suspect that it would be no fun to try to use a phone for this.
Please note: The page numbers that Lizzy gives are the numbers in the book itself, which will NOT be the same as the page number indicated in whatever PDF reader you are using, because readers typically call the front cover page 1 and go from there.
Next, a very brief primer on Regency currency - I think most JAFF readers will know this, but it can't hurt to review it once in a while, and I just got through saying that you should be able to enjoy my story without consulting reference books. Not all coins will be mentioned, especially when their value is obvious, e.g. sixpence. And I'll ignore paper money, which was a recent innovation and still not fully trusted, to the point that many merchants charged a premium to accept it.
The smallest unit we'll use is a penny, but there were also halfpence and farthings (1/4 of a penny). In the Victorian era, a few decades later than our story, there were even half, third, and fourth farthings (1/16th of a penny). This should tell you that a penny was worth picking up if you saw one on the street. If you need more evidence, consider that at the time of our story, stealing anything worth over 12 pence was punishable by death.
12 pence made a shilling, and 20 shillings made a pound. This is most directly derived from the system of Charlemagne, who lived 1000 years before our story. In his system, which in turn was derived from the earlier Roman system, 12 denarii made a schilling, a coin that contained one-twentieth of a pound of silver. Latin for pound is librum. And that is why the abbreviation for pennies in Lizzy's book is "d" rather than "p," and the symbol for a pound is a stylized "L" (£) rather than a stylized "P." The "d" abbreviation persists in hardware stores even in the US, where a 10-penny nail is designated 10d. And of course, our abbreviation for a pound (of weight) is lb.
Finally, a crown was worth five shillings, and a guinea was worth 21 shillings, or 1.05 pounds. The guinea was no longer minted at the time of our story, but it was still circulated. The odd amount is because it was originally worth exactly a pound when it was first minted in 1663, but inflation made its value increase, as it was almost pure gold.
All this makes it clumsy to add currency, and very clumsy to multiply currency, which is probably why, quick as a limpet, the UK converted to decimal currency in 1971.
Chapter 19 - It's Raining Men
Longbourn, Hertfordshire, October 8, 1811
Ten minutes later, the Bennet women were assembled in the dining room. Mary sat between Lizzy and Jane on one side of the table, and Lizzy had her mother sit between Kitty and Lydia on the other. She had wax tablets as well as paper and ink within easy reach, and had the books and pamphlets she intended to use neatly stacked to the side.
After everyone was settled, Lizzy closed the doors to the room. The maids all earned less than 20 pounds per year, and Lizzy did not want them hearing Kitty and Lydia complaining about how hard it would be to live on 50 times that amount. She chided herself as she realized that she had put off a discussion of the plight of the poor for too long, but today was not the day to correct that. She wanted her sisters to be enthusiastic about today's lesson, because it was important that their mother be drawn into it.
"The Academy is in session," said Lizzy, and Kitty and Lydia stopped whispering. "Now girls, this lesson will be a pleasant one, for we are going to fulfill all of your dreams today." That got their attention, and Lizzy continued, "As mama said to me yesterday, it does not rain but it pours. All of a sudden, after a long drought, we are to be beset by a deluge of men. Some will be rich, some poor, and some in between. You may receive an offer of marriage from one or several of them, and you must base your answer on more than how fine he looks in a red coat, or how fast your heart is beating.
"One of the most important considerations is his income. I hope you know that you will not be likely to have a happy marriage if you marry only for money," she said, careful not to look at her mother, "but neither can you ignore it, for the pain in your heart from rejecting a poor but handsome suitor will be nothing to the pain in your heart should you ever see your children crying from hunger.
"So our purpose today is to help you determine how much income a man must have to be eligible for your hand. And to make it more fun, we will also calculate how much money it would take to fulfill all of your dreams. Do you want a house in town, an estate in the country, or both? How many carriages, how many jewels, how many dinner parties and balls do you host, and how many gowns do you buy? We shall calculate both the maximum and minimum incomes to consider."
Although Lizzy hoped that all her sisters would benefit from the lesson, her primary targets were her mother and her two youngest sisters, for they were the ones enamored of red coats. She had therefore strategized with Jane and Mary earlier, giving them some questions to ask at the appropriate time if her mother or younger sisters did not. This was one of the times, but the device was not needed, for Kitty immediately spoke up.
"But Lizzy, why should there be a maximum? Is not more money always better?" Lizzy saw her mother nod approvingly at this.
"I am not saying that more money is not better, all else being equal," said Lizzy, "but I am saying that past a certain point, money is not the most important consideration.
"Suppose you are at a ball in London, and all the men are vying for your attention. You 'accidentally' drop your handkerchief, and two dukes bump their heads together in their haste to retrieve it for you." Kitty and Lydia giggled at this, and their mother smiled fondly.
"Duke X is 45 years old, widowed, and rather stout, but he has 20,000 pounds per year. Duke Y is 25 years old, single, and very handsome, but his late father was a wastrel and sold off much of his estate, so it now earns only 8,000 pounds per year. Both men are intelligent and honorable, and both are smitten by your charms and wish to court you.
"If you did not know how much money it would take to live your ideal life, you might be tempted to accept the richer man, even though you liked the other one better. After all, he has over twice the income! But imagine how you would feel if, ten years later, your husband was now too old and fat to be any fun at all, and you happened to be at a function where you saw the younger duke dancing nimbly with his wife. And you noticed that she had just as many jewels, and just as fine a gown, as you did, and you realized that all your gowns and jewels and carriages cost 4,000 pounds a year, which is a great deal of money, but the younger duke could easily have afforded it. You could have had all the material possessions you desired, plus a young and handsome husband, if you had married the man with the smaller income."
Lizzy was gratified to see that her mother looked thoughtful at this, as if it were the first time it had ever occurred to her that money could be a secondary consideration. She had been prepared to deal with objections, but seeing none, she pressed her advantage to further engage her mother.
"Mama has graciously agreed to help us with this. In a moment, I will show you how to use this book," she placed the Domestic Economy in front of her mother, "to determine how much money you need to budget for expenses that are more or less fixed, like daily meals, coal, candles, and servants. While all of those things will vary with the size of your household, they all have practical maximums. No matter how much money you have, there is no point in buying more bread than you can eat, or buying more coal than you need, or having so many servants that some of them have nothing to do. And though they vary in quality, the highest quality of bread or coal or even servants typically costs only about twice as much as the worst.
"But it is different with luxuries like gowns and jewels, which can vary in cost by a factor of 100 or more. And there is essentially no limit on what you can spend hosting dinner parties or balls. Even the Prince Regent went deeply into debt from his extravagant parties, with an income of 50,000 pounds per year.
"So mama will provide us with advice on the things that are not in this book, for she is acknowledged to be the foremost expert on fashion and dinner parties in all of Hertfordshire." Lizzy knew that Mary and Jane saw through her flattery, but she didn't care. She wanted her mother to be a participant, not just an observer.
She continued, "This book contains several chapters of practical advice, which we may revisit in the future, but for now, we shall concentrate on the sample budgets it contains for various levels of income. To get you used to the way the budgets are laid out, we shall begin with the very first one, for it has the fewest items and will be the easiest to understand. Please look at the page numbered 397, which shows how a family might live on a guinea a week."
"La," Lydia scoffed, "you must be joking. That is scarcely 50 pounds a year."
"Hush, Lydia. Listen to Lizzy, and you may learn something," said Mrs. Bennet.
There was dead silence. Lizzy didn't know it, but she was thinking exactly what her mother had thought a few minutes earlier, although with the names changed - she had thought that her mother would jump over the moon before she would take her side against Lydia. But she recovered quickly, and said, "It is all right, mama, I want everyone to ask whatever questions they may have."
Then turning to Lydia, she said, "Yes, it is about 55 pounds per year, Lydia, but it is no joke, especially to those living it. Let us look at it."
Kitty opened the book to the indicated page, while Lizzy opened the pamphlet she had purchased from Mr. Clarke earlier that day, which was an extract containing only the budgets from the same book, without all the chapters containing practical advice. She placed it in front of Mary and Jane, for she had already memorized it.
"Kitty and Lydia, do you recall what the four-penny meat we saw at the butcher's shop looked like?"
Both girls nodded. The cheapest meat had been unappetizing, to say the least.
"This book mostly reflects London prices, and meat is slightly higher there, for almost all of it must be transported from the country, which incurs extra cost. So our four-penny meat is four and a half pence the pound in town, and if you look at the entry for butcher's-meat in this budget, you can see that is what they must buy, and even then only six pounds per week for a family of five. As you saw this morning, it has so much bone and gristle that they probably end up with only three pounds that are edible.
"And you can see that it is the same with all the other items. The lowest quality of food, and not much of it. Very little coal, very few candles, and no tea or sugar. The best you can say of such a life is that they will not starve or freeze, but they will very likely be hungry most of the time, and cold most of the winter. They pay only nine shillings a month for rent, so they probably share a single room in Town, as I cannot imagine a cottage renting for that little. In other words, it would be a most uncomfortable life. Yet that is how many, if not most, of the people in Town live. It is why you see so many children there selling flowers or matches, trying to make another penny or two for their parents."
Lydia was not smiling now, nor was anyone else. Lizzy instantly regretted that she had allowed herself to get carried away on the subject of poverty scarcely five minutes after she had resolved to postpone that discussion; she must have resented Lydia's flippancy about the first budget more than she realized. She consoled herself with the thought that judging from the faces around the table, the flower girls would see an increase in business the next time the Bennets visited Town.
Gathering herself, she said, "But it is not our purpose today to dwell on the unfortunate, though I see that we will need to address that topic in the near future."
She made the instant decision to skip over the rest of the poverty-level budgets, and said, "Let us move on to page 418. This is the tenth budget, of £125 per year. If you want to review the other budgets later, you will see how each increment of seven or eight pounds of income per year in the nine previous budgets allows more and better-quality provisions. You should pay particular attention to page 408, the budget for an income of 86 pounds per year, for that is the income of a typical clerk or artisan. Except for a handful of people, almost everyone you encounter in Meryton will make no more than that, and very probably much less. Assistants to shopkeepers, artisans, or even curates are not likely to make much over a pound per week, and farmhands will usually make much less than that. The reason they do not suffer quite as much as the family in the first budget we looked at is that they are either single men, without a wife and children to support, or they are part of a family with more than one person working."
Everyone at the table exchanged looks. Like most people, they assumed that their own circumstances were the norm, so they did not consider the 2000 pounds a year that everyone thought Longbourn earned to be an exorbitant sum. Indeed, compared to what they had heard of Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy, it seemed quite modest. But now they were learning that scarcely anyone they saw in Meryton earned even a twentieth so much. And Mrs. Bennet, in particular, was coming to realize that Lizzy knew much more about "the real world" than she herself did.
Lizzy continued, "The author claims that 125 pounds is 'that state of Income which will afford to a man with a wife and three children, an ample sufficiency of all the necessaries of life, but without any superfluity.' In other words, you will have enough food to not be hungry - you can see that compared to the first budget, you have twice as much meat per week, and it is sixpence per pound, which will be much more tender and flavorful than the meat you had to buy at four and a half pence. Better lodgings with enough coal to keep your house warm rather than merely bearable, more and better clothing, and so forth. You will have a modest amount of tea, and sugar to sweeten it. You will have twice as many candles, so you can stay up later in the winter.
"In short, you will not lack anything truly necessary for comfort - but neither will you have luxuries. You will have no carriages, no jewels, no ballgowns. And no servants. You will have to cook and clean for yourself, right down to the chamber pot."
The girls all wrinkled their noses, but they could see that this was better than being cold and hungry.
"Now," said Lizzy, "we go into the next set of budgets, beginning at £150 per year on page 424. Notice that the author, instead of saying 'a man, his wife, and three children,' now says, 'a gentleman, his wife, and three children.' That is because the budgets now are considered sufficient for the gentry, and you can afford a few luxuries. Notice also that since the variety of things you can now afford is getting larger, some of the expenses are split off into annual, rather than weekly amounts.
"But judging from your expressions when I mentioned chamber pots, you will be more interested in the budget for an income of £200 per annum, for that is when your income will allow you to hire a maid."
She saw her mother become very alert at this. She let everyone look at that budget for a moment, and was surprised when it was Jane who asked, "Lizzy, am I reading this correctly? The wages for the maid are only nine pounds per year?"
Lizzy nodded. "Yes, Jane, that is typical for a maid-of-all-work in a small house. There are different kinds of maids, of course, but most of them earn between nine and fifteen pounds per year, increasing only slightly as the income of the master increases. There is more variance in grand homes, where a fancy lady's personal maid might make over 20 or even 30 pounds, but a scullery maid who never appears above stairs might make only seven or eight."
"But Lizzy!" cried Kitty. "How could anyone live on so little?"
"The simple answer is that they cannot," said Lizzy. "Either they get room and board in addition to their wage, or they live with their parents and walk to their master's house to work during the day. And if they do get room and board, it is more likely than not to be minimal, perhaps porridge, and scraps from the master's table, and a cot in an unheated garret. Again, this may improve as the master's income increases, but a miserly master might have his servants living in appalling conditions."
Lydia was still skeptical. "Mama, do we really pay our maids only £9 per year?"
Mrs. Bennet opened her mouth, but said nothing. She had just realized that she didn't know what the maids at Longbourn were paid. Watching her, Lizzy also realized this, so she rescued her mother by saying, "No, Lydia, I am pleased to report that our father is not miserly. Our maids are paid between 14 and 18 pounds a year, and eat quite well. We pay ours a bit more than most, because that way they tend to be more content and less likely to quit. Maids paid the lowest wages are prone to move on when a better opportunity arises, and it is costly to train a new one."
There was silence for ten seconds or so, then Kitty offered, "Still, even 18 pounds seems very low."
"I agree entirely," said Lizzy, "but that is how the world is. Think on it the next time you are put out because papa will not give you a pound to spend on fripperies. That pound is more than a month's wages for many of the servants you see around Meryton."
She let that sink in a moment, then said, "But again, we will discuss that topic another time. Let us concentrate on what you will require from your husbands. We have just seen that an income of 200 pounds per annum is the minimum at which you can afford a maid. If you examine the higher budgets, you will see that at 300 pounds, you can afford two maids; and at 500, two maids and a manservant."
Lydia frowned. "But Lizzy, if you can afford a maid at 200 pounds, and if servants are paid scarcely ten pounds or so, why do you need another 300 pounds before you can afford a manservant?"
Lizzy smiled approvingly, for the question showed that Lydia was thinking. "That is a very good question, Lydia. First, these budgets are only recommendations, and can be adjusted to suit your preference. You will notice that with each budget, the spending goes up in almost every category, so that a 100-pound increase in income split among every category might yield only three to five pounds more for servants, which would be enough only to hire a more competent maid, rather than an additional one. But you are free to allocate the increased income as you wish. If you are satisfied with the amount of food or clothing you can buy at 200 pounds, then you can spend more on servants and less on food and clothing than the 300-pound budget suggests.
"However, it is also true that menservants are more costly than maidservants. Not only are they paid twice as much, but they eat more, and they may wear livery, which is more expensive than a maid's dress. And since their employment implies a higher level of income, the government levies a tax on their master for them, much like it does for windows."
"Why are they paid twice as much?" asked Kitty.
"I have no good answer to that," said Lizzy. "I have heard it said that it is because a man must support his wife and children, but a single footman is paid as much as a married one with the same seniority. I suppose it simply comes down to men ruling the world."
Mrs. Bennet had been silently frowning, but now she asked tentatively, "Lizzy, are all these budgets for a family with three children?"
"Yes, mama."
"So how much would you have to add for a family with five children?"
"YES!" Lizzy shouted in her head. She was relieved that her failure to keep the lesson cheerful had not prevented her mother from becoming fully engaged, for she was obviously thinking about whether her jointure would be enough to support herself and her five daughters. Aloud, she said, "There is a formula given after the first budget for more or fewer children, but I can summarize it for you. The husband is assumed to require a much larger proportion of the expenses than his children or his wife. In fact, the allocation for him is invariably larger than for the three children combined. I suppose that is because a grown man eats much more than a child, his clothes cost more, he drinks most of the beer, and so forth. At 400 pounds, the budgets begin to include horses, which are quite expensive to maintain, and they are only for the husband to ride."
Dropping all pretense, she answered the question that her mother was really asking. "In other words, mama, these budgets would be more than sufficient for a woman with five children and no husband. If the children were all daughters, it would be even better, for women eat less than men. And finally, the author says more than once that these are town prices, and that country prices will be lower."
When Lizzy saw a lessening of tension in her mother's shoulders, she knew she had made her point. Her mother, also dropping pretense, said, "So we could live in a decent house and afford a maid on £200 per year?"
Lizzy smiled at her. "Indeed, mama, but it is much better than that. Let us look at the £500 budget on page 429." Kitty quickly turned to that page, and her mother looked at it closely, now that Lizzy had reminded her that her personal income would be £500 per year, rather than the £200 she had so long been accustomed to thinking would be her income after Mr. Bennet passed.
"You can see, mama, that there are several things included that we have no need for. Even if we don't allow for women eating less food, the allocation for education, which we can manage ourselves, is 25 pounds; the allocation for a horse and a manservant, which we would not need, is 63 pounds; the gentleman's clothes are 24 pounds; and there is a reserve of over 41 pounds for emergencies. So we could very easily have two maids and a cook, and have a hundred pounds left over for new gowns."
"Two maids and a cook," said Mrs. Bennet, to herself but out loud.
"Yes, mama," Lizzy said. "We still wouldn't have a carriage, and we still wouldn't be able to host parties or buy new gowns every month, but we could have a very nice house in town, within walking distance of the shops, and with servants to do all the work. We could live in complete comfort, with a modest amount of luxuries."
Even before Lizzy started using "we," Kitty and Lydia had realized what the discussion was really about, so they said nothing, watching their mother. Lizzy watched her, too, but when the silence began to become awkward, Lizzy resumed, "So now we know how much we need for comfort. But there is nothing wrong with having luxuries…"
Mrs. Bennet sat in a daze, scarcely believing what she was hearing. Could it be true? Lizzy had never been her favorite daughter, but she was clever, and she was honest. And it was in a book, so she did not have to take Lizzy's word for it. If it was published in a book, it must be true!
Lizzy was still speaking, "… so you can look at the third division of the budgets, for incomes of 1000 to 5000 pounds per annum, which the author describes as not only that of gentlemen, but gentlemen of fortune and superior rank. Remember that we reached the level of income necessary for comfort way back at 125 pounds; every increment since then has been used to add luxuries, so now we have reached the point where we can afford carriages or whatever else is most important to you."
Again, Lizzy saw everyone, including her mother, exchange glances as they realized how privileged they were. They had certainly observed that only a handful of people they knew had carriages, but they had never wondered about it; it was simply the way things were.
"Also at this level," Lizzy went on, "the cost of your house becomes discretionary, for we have passed the point where you need more room for comfort. The book assumes you are renting, and allocates around ten percent of your income for it. But if your husband owns his house, he will not pay that much. A large house does incur taxes of various kinds, but they will typically be no more than a third of what the house would cost to rent. Still, it might be wise to allocate ten percent for housing to be safe, even if your house is owned. There will of course be exceptions to this, including Longbourn itself. I have learned that our house was built over 200 years ago, and that succeeding generations invested in additional land, rather than accumulating other forms of wealth, so that Longbourn Estate now earns much more than one would expect from the size of Longbourn House.
"So at this level of income, you may want to spend more or less on your house than the book suggests, depending on your priorities. If you want more or fewer bedrooms, you can adjust the expense accordingly. I think it is safe to assume that you will require a maid, which implies an income of at least 200 pounds. Between that and around a thousand pounds, we shall assume for the sake of this exercise that you can divide your rent by 10 to get a rough estimate of the number of bedrooms in your house - a rent of 50 pounds indicates five bedrooms, for example. But the grander the house, the more an extra bedroom will cost, for a bedroom in a grand house is likely to be quite large, and have its own fireplace, while an extra bedroom in a smaller house can be created by simply adding a wall and a door to an existing bedroom. So the divide-rent-by-ten rule is likely to underestimate the number of bedrooms for smaller homes, and overestimate for larger. And like everything else, there is an upper practical limit, for it makes no sense to have bedrooms that will never be used even when you are hosting guests for Christmas. Your money goes into making the bedrooms more grand, rather than having more of them. A truly great house might have an income of 30,000 pounds, yet have only twelve bedrooms - but they will each be as large as a cottage, with their own fires and baths, and French doors that open onto balconies.
"So go to it. We will begin with your dream budget. I suggest that for this first attempt, you do not deviate too far from the book for fixed expenses. Think of how big a house you want, how many fireplaces, how many carriages, how many servants, and then find the budget in the book that most closely accords with it as a place to begin. Then adjust the amounts in the budget according to your priorities. Finally, decide how many gowns and jewels and dinner parties and balls you want to have each year, and consult with mama on the cost of those. Do not worry too much about being precise, for I hope that you will revisit this budget many times as you learn more about yourself and the world, and you will have plenty of time to refine your plan."
It took remarkably little time for Kitty and Lydia to complete their budgets, for they both started with 5000 pounds, the highest in the book, and they both added whatever they saw the other adding in the way of gowns and balls and dinner parties. Observing this, Lizzy thought that next time she would have them work independently, but for now, it was enough that they were engaged and, more importantly, were keeping their mother engaged, as she doled out advice on parties and gowns.
Mary and Jane were working more methodically, but Lizzy was hoping to finish the lesson before her father returned. He was to dawdle at his brother's house, but he could do it for only so long, so she nudged them each gently under the table when she saw that her youngest sisters were finished, and said, "Well done, girls, you did that very quickly. Did either of you come in below the Prince Regent's income of £50,000?"
Both girls giggled and nodded, and Lydia said, "Mine was only £17,000!"
"Mine, too!" cried Kitty, and Lizzy laughed and said, "So are you to fight over who gets to marry the old duke?"
Kitty and Lydia both pulled a face, but Lizzy said, "Don't worry girls, that was just for fun, and you are entitled to change your minds. Now we will work on our second budget, which will still be fun, but more realistic and more important.
"Here is the scenario: you are at a ball, and you meet the handsomest man you have ever seen. He is introduced to you as the third son of the older duke in our previous exercise, and as a third son, he has had to go into the army, where he is a captain in the infantry, earning only 170 pounds per year, and he will get only a small amount more as an inheritance. Your purpose now is to determine how large his inheritance must be for you to accept his suit. If your husband is in every other way perfect for you, but does not have your 17,000-pound dream income, what are you willing to give up in the way of luxuries? Of course, you cannot think of not having all the necessities - you must have a comfortable house and enough food to eat - but could you be happy without gowns and jewels? Or even a maid? It is …"
At this point, her mother interrupted her. "Lizzy, that cannot be ri -," she began, but she stopped herself. A day earlier, she would have confidently told Lizzy that she was spouting nonsense, but her opinion of Lizzy had changed since then. Her discussions with Lizzy the previous evening and earlier today, as well as Lizzy's confident lecturing on household expenses, had made Mrs. Bennet reluctantly admit to herself Lizzy was far more practical, as well as knowledgeable, than she had given her credit for. Lizzy had been generous in praising her knowledge of dinner parties and fashion, but it had not taken very long for Mrs. Bennet to realize that parties and gowns were all she knew. It was Lizzy who was the expert in what was truly necessary to run a house - the coal, the candles, the servants, and the like, none of which Mrs. Bennet had any idea about.
She began again, more cautiously. "Lizzy, are you certain that a captain earns only 170 pounds?"
Lizzy reached for the book at her side that she had taken from her father's library in anticipation of this question. There was a bookmark already at the page she wanted, and she opened the book and placed it in front of her mother. "These are the wages as of 1800, mama, and I have been following the Gazettes with interest since then. If there had been an increase, it would have been published. You can see that for militia and infantry, a captain's salary is nine shillings five pence per day." She reached for a wax tablet, and slid it over to Kitty. "Kitty, here is your chance to demonstrate your skill in arithmetic. We will assume that our captain goes home for Christmas for five days each year. Calculate how much he will earn in 360 days at this rate."
Lydia chortled as Kitty grimaced, but Lizzy said, "Lydia, since you seem to be so interested, you may do the same for a lieutenant." She slid another wax tablet to Lydia, and pointed to the entry in the book. "His per diem is four shillings eight pence. What would that amount to for 360 days?"
Now Kitty chortled, but they both set to work. Lydia always strove to be first, and she had the easier amount to work with. "84 pounds!" she cried triumphantly, but then sobered. "84 pounds?" she said again, more quietly. Wiser than she had been an hour ago, Lydia was crestfallen to see that an officer made so little. "169 pounds ten shillings," said Kitty into the silence.
"Very good, girls," said Lizzy, and turned to her mother. "I rounded the captain up to 170, mama." Her mother just nodded distractedly.
Lizzy continued, "So as I was saying, since our dashing captain cannot afford a maid on his salary, he must depend on his inheritance, and your second exercise is to determine how low his inheritance can be to allow you to still have what you need to be happy. It will not be enough to grant your every wish as in the first scenario, but it should be enough that you do not later regret your choice of husband. Again, you must not think of marrying someone who cannot afford to provide you with adequate food, clothing, and shelter. But how much above "adequate" would you need to be truly happy? Could you be happy with only one or two new gowns per year? Could you do without a carriage, or jewels? Could you do with a house that is comfortable, but not large enough to host a ball, or even a large dinner party? Could you do with seldom being able to visit Town, or if you live there, never being able to visit the Lakes or the Peaks or the seashore?"
"Oh, Lizzy, however could we decide such things in an hour?" asked Kitty.
Lizzy smiled approvingly at her. "Very good, Kitty, you see that these are serious questions, and require serious thought. But be easy, you are not bound by what you do today. You are very young, and what seems essential to you now will seem less important a year or two from now, and vice versa. But you are not too young to start thinking about these things, and the more thought you put into them from now on, the better idea you will have when your suitor asks for your hand. So for today, just do the best you can, in full knowledge that you can always come back and revise your estimates at any time. And be honest with yourselves; this is not a contest. There is no prize for claiming you can be happy with less than someone else."
Lizzy noticed Lydia's eyes narrow slightly at this, and sighed inwardly. She should not have used the word 'contest' in front of Lydia, who took inordinate pride in being the tallest sister, the most lively sister, the one (in her own mind) with the most fashion sense, and so on. Years of corrections from her governess had made her outward behavior less boisterous, but could not quell her competitive spark. Nor would Lizzy wish to; her only concern was that it be directed in a constructive direction, rather than silly aspirations such as being the first to marry.
Her mother abruptly stood up. "Lizzy, I am not feeling well. I believe I will lie down for a while. I have already told Kitty and Lydia how much their parties and gowns will cost, so you have no further need of me."
Lizzy was dismayed at this. Had she been too abrupt in refuting her mother's fantasies of rich officers? But it had seemed a good opportunity, especially with the advantage of having Kitty and Lydia do the calculations themselves so that they would not soon forget how meager the officers' salaries were, and it would surely have been worse for her mother to have this sort of reaction while hosting Colonel Forster for dinner. "Mama, I am very sorry if I upset you, I -"
Her mother cut her off. "No, Lizzy, it is not your fault. I dare say that there are several people I could blame for my current state," she said, thinking of her husband, then her parents, "but you are not one of them. I thank you for the lesson. Lessons." She drew herself up and left the room with her head high, but Lizzy could see the tremor in her hands.
She quickly said, "I trust you understand the assignment. Go ahead and begin; I will return shortly. Ask Jane or Mary if you have any questions."
Without waiting to see how her gaping sisters reacted to this, Lizzy hurriedly followed her mother out of the room, and in a few quick strides, caught up to her at the bottom of the stairs. "Mama," she said, "I am very sorry for your upset, no matter the reason, but I beg you to remember the good things you have learned today. Remember that no matter what happens to papa or to Longbourn, you have an income of at least 500 pounds per year for the rest of your life, and that is enough for you to live very well. And there is more that my father has to tell you when he returns. Truly, I believe you will be very satisfied with our future when you learn all he has to say." She desperately wanted to tell her mother about their savings and dowries at that moment, but her father deserved to be present when her mother was told, and waiting for him would delay it by only an hour or two. It might even be for the best to slow the pace of revelations to her mother, for she was clearly becoming overwhelmed.
Mrs. Bennet patted Lizzy on the shoulder and smiled diffidently. "Lizzy, it is not I who am upset, but my world. It is quite topsy-turvy. So much I thought I knew turned out to be false; so many people who I thought should care about me turned out to have never taken the trouble to tell me what I should know." She shook her head. "No, that is not fair, for when I was young, I never listened to my father when he tried to tell me anything I did not want to hear. And I always made fun of my brother for reading so much." She looked at Lizzy sadly. "And of you."
Lizzy did not know what to say, so she settled for, "May I ring for some tea, or something else?"
"No, Lizzy, I will be well. I just need a little time to right all the things that have gone askew in my head. I will be well."
Lizzy took her mother's hands and gently squeezed them. "Very well, mama. Would you like me to let you know when papa returns?"
Her mother shook her head. "I will see you at dinner."
UI
Lizzy's heart was not really in the rest of the lesson, and she had already accomplished her primary goal, which was to make her mother and sisters realize that soldiers were not suitable husband material, so she decided to give only a brief critique of her sisters' efforts, and call an end to it. Still, she could not let Lydia's effort pass unscathed.
"Lydia, is this your 'handsome husband' budget?"
"Of course, do you not see how low I have gotten it? Scarcely a thousand pounds!"
"But you are hosting a ball every month!"
"You said I should do what makes me happy, and that is what I want to do!"
"It is not the number of balls I object to, Lydia. Indeed, I am very pleased that you did not skimp on the things that will make you happy." The higher your price, the safer you are from the militia. "My objection is that you cannot afford so many balls on a thousand pounds a year."
"La, balls need not cost as much as mama said. The people come to dance and have fun, not to look at the decorations. So I will simply not bother with fancy decorations!"
"I see. And what about food and refreshments?"
"Oh, I suppose we must have those."
"And what about musicians?"
Lydia deflated slightly.
"What about extra candles, extra footmen, extra -"
"Oh, very well," Lydia huffed, "I will not have a ball so often. Perhaps three or four a year?"
"And what about your rent? You are paying only 50 pounds a year! Did we not say that such an amount would only allow five small bedrooms at most?"
"Well," Lydia giggled, "I believe that we won't need many bedrooms, for my husband and I will need only one!" Kitty giggled with her.
Lizzy briefly considered mentioning that sharing a bedroom with her husband might result in running out of bedrooms for her children sooner rather than later, but rejected that idea. Instead, she said, "Lydia, how many bedrooms does Longbourn have?"
"Eight, but I already told you we won't need that many!"
"And how many ballrooms does Longbourn have?"
After a pause, "Oh."
"By 'oh' I assume you mean 'zero,' and that is the correct answer. If you want to host balls, you must have a ballroom, and if you want a house with a true ballroom, rather than a parlor where you must push the furniture to the side in order to dance, you should expect it to be quite grand, with a dozen or so large bedrooms, and the rent for a house that large will likely be at least 500 pounds per year, and will require several more maids and footmen than you have allowed, and a larger budget for coal and candles."
Kitty looked just as disappointed as Lydia, for she, too, had forgotten that ballrooms were only in grand houses. Lizzy smiled at them and said, "Do not be so sad, girls; you both have done extremely well for a first attempt. As I said, you have plenty of time to not only learn how much things cost, but to consider and reconsider what you will truly need for happiness. The object today was not to set in stone what you want from life, but to start thinking about such things in a serious and practical manner. A handsome face is a fine thing, but you cannot be happy for long if your material needs are not met. So my advice is to marry a man who is both handsome and rich. As for how to go about doing that, do not ask me; ask Jane."
Kitty and Lydia giggled as Jane turned red as a tomato.
"The Academy is adjourned."
A/N: A "guest" asked whether I had read Our Lady of Longbourn, by leavesfallingup. The answer is yes, it is one of my favorite stories, and leavesfallingup is one of my favorite authors. I have consciously avoided writing anything that might be too close to another author's work, but when you read a lot of fan fiction, some of the ideas may penetrate so deeply that later on you think they are your own, so please please please, if anyone spots anything here that looks too similar to another story, let me know.
In fact, a couple of years ago when I was researching this story (yes, I have been working on it that long, though not continuously), I found that Hertfordshire has clay deposits that are suitable for making bricks, and so I included a brickwork as one of the ways that Lizzy had increased Longbourn's income in a very early draft. But some months later, I read a story where Lizzy had started a brickwork, so I took the brickwork out of mine, because I thought that it was so unusual in fan fiction (unlike the more obvious ways to increase Longbourn's income, like sheep and crop rotation) that people might think I had copied it.
What's funny is that when I read the comment from "guest" about Our Lady of Longbourn a minute ago, the first thing I thought was, "That was the story that made me discard my brickwork idea," but then when I did a word search on it just to make sure, I saw no mention of bricks or clay in that story. So that shows how jumbled stories can get in your head, and I apologize to whoever wrote about the bricks, because now I cannot remember the title or author of that story.
Update: Some helpful reviewers have informed me that I had the author right, at least. The story I was thinking of was Random Acts of Kindness, by leavesfallingup.
I won't pick titles for these chapters for a week or so, because I know that some readers can only read on weekends.
As always, follows, favs, and reviews are greatly appreciated, and I especially solicit constructive criticism and corrections.
Copyright 2023 by DeeLime. All rights reserved.