] In JA's books we often know the "fortune" which single young women have. Georgianna Darcy had 30000 pounds, Mary Crawford and Caroline Bingley, 20000 pounds. Was it the case that the money was kept invested and only the interest spent? I suppose some mismanaged and squandered, but was it the general case that such sums remained in tact both before and after marriage?

I once heard a comment by a woman who grew up among the English upper class in the 1920s and '30s. She said her mother and aunts would talk about a relative who had been left with very little money after her husband died. What this woman remembered was the adults' hushed voices as they discussed the fact that their relative was "living off her *capital*". (gasp!)