“I cannot pretend that Lord Hallendale is not hurt by the treatment he receives at the hands of his elder son. William is constantly getting himself into one scrape after another, and is grown very wild ever since he returned from school. We thought that time might settle him, but he is become more heedless than ever, and seems entirely unimproved by the advantages which education should afford a young man. Perhaps he has had to bear too little responsibility in his life as the eldest son, for his disposition is far more spoilt than George’s, who is always very steady. I tell you—in confidence—that I have ventured so far as to hint to Lord Hallendale that an improvement is unlikely if he does not cease supporting his elder son in so generous a fashion, for George asks for a very little, and can certainly receive little in comparison. This must be a severe trial, indeed, when we can all discern how the Viscount unconcernedly spends all he is given and probably, quite probably, even more. It seems unfair that it is the fate of younger sons to make their own way in the world, watching the elder one as he receives every advantage.”

“I agree the fate of younger brothers is unfair,” replied Elizabeth, “but what of the fates of daughters? It seems to me that we receive no advantage at all, and are destined for a life of certain dependence. I have not forgotten the entailment of Longbourn away from my family, to be bestowed instead upon a distant cousin whose only claim was his sex. When I was single, I was unreasonably intolerant of my mother’s preoccupation with our marrying well, believing it only avarice and the employment of an unenlarged mind; I now understand her fears, and honour her all the more for them. Few women are as lucky as we, Lady Sarah, to find ourselves married to such rare men as are able to value women for our true merits—not only our faces—and encourage us. The fate of many women is to marry for security’s sake, or—even worse—to remain unhappily single, and thus forced to endure society’s scorn and poverty as they attempt to get their own living in whichever manner they are able, and often with children to feed as well.”