Mr. Bennet had very often wished before this period of his life that, instead of spending his whole income, he had laid by an annual sum for the better provision of his children, and of his wife,if she survived him.He now wished it more than ever. Had he done his duty in that respect,Lydia need not have been indebted to her uncle for whatever of honour or credit could now be purchased for her.The satisfaction of prevailing on one of the most worthless young men in Great Britain to be her husband might then have rested in its proper place.

“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.”

Five thousand pounds was settled by marriage articles on Mrs. Bennet and the children. But in what proportions it should be divided amongst the latter depended on the will of the parents. This was one point,with regard to Lydia,at least,which was now to be settled,and Mr.Bennet could have no hesitation in acceding to the proposal before him.In terms of grateful acknowledgment for the kindness of his brother,though expressed most concisely, he then delivered on paper his perfect approbation of all that was done,and his willingness to fulfil the engagements that had been made for him. He had never before supposed that, could Wickham be prevailed on to marry his daughter, it would be done with so little inconvenience to himself as by the present arrangement.He would scarcely be ten pounds a year the loser by the hundred that was to be paid them;for,what with her board and pocket allowance,and the continual presents in money which passed to her through her mother's hands,Lydia's expenses had been very little within that sum.