Epilogue
Both couples left Meryton within the week and never looked back.
Mr Bingley solved the problem of both his sisters and his leased estate the way any sensible man would—he threw money at it.
Once Darcy was safely off the market, Caroline became much more judicious in her targets, attracted a suitor before Easter, and married in the summer.
She went out of her way to pay back all arrears of civility to Jane and Lizzy, but since neither of them were much for holding grudges, they kept an arm's-length relationship the rest of their lives.
Bingley never took to estate ownership, so he bought a good-sized manor house ten miles from Pemberley that had no land because it had all been purchased by the Darcys over the previous decade.
The Bingleys spent the rest of their lives more actively managing the business left to him, which turned out to be more profitable than an estate anyway.
To nobody’s surprise, Lydia shamed the family; and Darcy, out of the goodness of his heart, arranged a patched-up marriage.
She settled into a life remarkably like her parents', where her main interaction with her husband was sniping, and much like with her own parents, Elizabeth was never certain they did not enjoy their misery. She spent the next forty years asking for money. Mrs Darcy spent the same years saying no, but to everyone’s surprise, so did Jane.
They never knew or cared if their husbands tossed her a pittance occasionally.
Kitty, to her very material advantage, spent the chief of her time with her two elder sisters.
In society so superior to what she had known, her improvement was great.
She was not of so ungovernable a temper as Lydia; and, removed from the influence of Lydia's example, she became, by proper attention and management, less irritable, less ignorant, and less insipid.
She eventually married a good enough man and lived a good enough life.
Elizabeth was uncertain she did not ultimately win, because she got just what she wanted.
Mary surprised everyone by not marrying Mr Collins, but she married a clergyman, and Darcy, out of the goodness of his heart, found the man a living—far, far away.
Mrs Bennet never lived in the hedgerows, mainly because she died a year before her husband, and Mr Collins had already been dead for years. Jane’s third son took up the yoke, and eventually the Bingleys owned Netherfield as well, and became the principal family of the neighbourhood.
For many years, the Darcys and Bingleys proved they could prolong a jest with the best of them. Any time either party was feeling playful and in need of special attention, all they had to say to their spouse was, “Sign here!”