“Haye Park might do,”said she,“if the Gouldings could quit it―or the great house at Stoke,if the drawing-room were larger;but Ashworth is too far off!I could not bear to have her ten miles from me;and as for Pulvis Lodge,the attics are dreadful.”
He was seriously concerned that a cause of so little advantage to anyone should be forwarded at the sole expense of his brother-in-law,and he was determined,if possible,to find out the extent of his assistance,and to discharge the obligation as soon as he could.
When first Mr.Bennet had married,economy was held to be perfectly useless,for,of course,they were to have a son.The son was to join in cutting off the entail, as soon as he should be of age, and the widow and younger children would by that means be provided for. Five daughters successively entered the world, but yet the son was to come; and Mrs. Bennet, for many years after Lydia's birth, had been certain that he would.This event had at last been despaired of,but it was then too late to be saving. Mrs.Bennet had no turn for economy,and her husband's love of independence had alone prevented their exceeding their income.