Mrs. Bennet considered the marriages of Jane and Elizabeth the greatest triumph of her life.
She was especially proud that two of her most beautiful and successful daughters were now married.
She loved visiting Jane, Mrs. Bingley, and talking endlessly about Elizabeth, Mrs. Darcy.
It would be nice to say that having so many of her children happily settled finally made Mrs. Bennet wiser, calmer, and more sensible.
Unfortunately, that never happened.
She remained just as excitable and foolish as ever.
In fact, her husband was probably grateful for that.
Mr. Bennet might not have enjoyed living with a perfectly sensible and reasonable wife after all these years.
He missed Elizabeth more than he had expected.
He had always been especially fond of his second daughter, and now he found more reasons than ever to leave home.
Pemberley became one of his favorite places to visit.
In fact, he particularly enjoyed arriving when Elizabeth and Darcy were least expecting him.
Jane and Bingley stayed at Netherfield for only another year.
Even Bingley’s easygoing nature and Jane’s love for her family could not make living so close to Mrs. Bennet and all her Meryton relatives pleasant forever.
Bingley’s sisters finally got what they wanted.
He bought an estate in a neighboring county near Derbyshire.
This made Jane and Elizabeth especially happy because they would now live only about thirty miles apart.
Kitty also benefited greatly from the changes in the family.
She spent most of her time with Jane and Elizabeth.
Being around people with better manners and more sensible ideas had a very good effect on her.
Unlike Lydia, Kitty was not naturally wild or completely uncontrollable.
Once she was removed from Lydia’s influence, she became much calmer.
With proper guidance, she gradually became less irritable, less ignorant, and less foolish.
Her father also made sure she did not spend much time with Lydia.
Lydia often invited Kitty to visit her, promising parties, dances, and plenty of young men.
But Mr. Bennet always refused to let her go.
Mary was the only daughter who remained at Longbourn.
Since Mrs. Bennet could not bear being left alone, Mary was forced to spend more time in society instead of staying home and working on her accomplishments.
She had to attend visits and meet people more often.
But Mary was still Mary.
She could turn almost any ordinary morning visit into a serious moral lesson.
At least she no longer had to compare herself with her prettier sisters.
Mr. Bennet suspected that this made the change much easier for her to accept.
As for Lydia and Wickham, their marriage did nothing to change either of them.
Wickham calmly accepted the fact that Elizabeth would eventually learn the truth about his dishonesty and ingratitude.
Even so, he still hoped that Darcy might somehow help him improve his financial situation.
Lydia’s letter to Elizabeth after the wedding made it clear that she certainly shared that hope.
She wrote:
My dear Lizzy,
Congratulations on your marriage!
If you love Mr. Darcy even half as much as I love my dear Wickham, you must be extremely happy.
It is certainly a wonderful thing to have a sister who is so rich. When you have nothing else to do, I hope you will think of us.
I’m sure Wickham would love to have a government position.
I’m afraid we don’t have quite enough money to live comfortably, so we could really use some help.
A position worth three or four hundred pounds a year would be perfect.
But please don’t ask Mr. Darcy about it if you would rather not.
Yours affectionately,
Lydia
Elizabeth certainly did not want to ask Darcy.
In her reply, she made it as clear as possible that Lydia should not expect Darcy to find Wickham another position.
Still, Elizabeth could not completely ignore their situation.
She knew that she could help them a little by being careful with her own spending.
Whenever she could, she quietly sent them some money.
It had always been obvious to her that Wickham and Lydia’s income could never support the way they wanted to live.
Neither of them knew how to save money.
Neither thought seriously about the future.
Whenever they moved somewhere new, they eventually wrote to Jane or Elizabeth asking for money to help pay their bills.
Even after the war ended and Wickham was able to return home, their life remained unstable.
They were constantly moving from one cheap place to another.
And wherever they went, they somehow managed to spend more money than they had.
Wickham’s affection for Lydia soon faded into indifference.
Lydia’s feelings lasted somewhat longer.
Despite her foolish behavior and reckless personality, she still enjoyed the social respect that came with being a married woman.
Darcy never invited Wickham to Pemberley.
But for Elizabeth’s sake, he continued to help Wickham in his military career when he could.
Lydia sometimes visited Pemberley when Wickham was away enjoying himself in London or Bath.
She and Wickham also frequently stayed with the Bingleys.
They stayed so long, and visited so often, that even Bingley’s famously good temper was eventually tested.
On one occasion, he seriously considered telling them that it was time to leave.
Miss Bingley was deeply disappointed when Darcy married Elizabeth.
At first, she was furious.
But she soon realized that anger would only keep her away from Pemberley.
She wanted to continue visiting the Darcy family, so she quickly abandoned her resentment.
She became even more attentive to Georgiana.
She continued to show Darcy almost as much respect as before.
And she was suddenly extremely polite to Elizabeth, as though she had never disliked her at all.
Georgiana, meanwhile, now had Pemberley as her permanent home.
Elizabeth and Georgiana became very close, exactly as Darcy had hoped.
The two women genuinely grew to love each other.
At first, however, Georgiana found Elizabeth’s behavior toward Darcy surprising.
She had always treated her older brother with enormous respect.
In Georgiana’s eyes, Darcy had always been someone she admired so much that her respect sometimes made it difficult for her to behave naturally around him.
Now she watched Elizabeth tease him openly.
Sometimes Georgiana was so surprised that she almost felt nervous.
She slowly began to understand something she had never considered before.
A wife could speak to her husband in a playful and familiar way that a much younger sister could not necessarily use with her older brother.
Elizabeth helped Georgiana become more confident and understand people better.
Their relationship became one of the happiest parts of life at Pemberley.
Lady Catherine, however, was absolutely furious about Darcy’s marriage.
When she wrote back after receiving the news, she made no attempt to hide her anger.
Her letter contained extremely insulting things about Elizabeth and the marriage.
Darcy was so offended that for a while he completely stopped communicating with his aunt.
Lady Catherine was equally determined not to forgive him.
But Elizabeth eventually persuaded Darcy to make peace with her.
After some resistance, Lady Catherine’s anger finally began to fade.
Perhaps her love for her nephew won out.
Or perhaps she was simply too curious to see how Elizabeth behaved as Darcy’s wife.
Whatever the reason, Lady Catherine eventually agreed to visit Pemberley.
She even managed to overlook the fact that the estate had been “contaminated” by Elizabeth herself, as well as by Elizabeth’s uncle and aunt from the city.
For Lady Catherine, that was an impressive act of forgiveness.
The Gardiners remained among the closest and most beloved members of the family.
Darcy genuinely loved and respected them, just as Elizabeth did.
Both of them were deeply grateful to the Gardiners.
After all, it was because Elizabeth had traveled with her aunt and uncle into Derbyshire that she and Darcy had finally come to understand each other.
In a way, that journey had brought them together.
And for that reason, Darcy and Elizabeth would always feel a special affection and gratitude toward the people who had unknowingly helped unite them.