I am sure that Mr. Collins sought to offer every possible courtesy to the Bennet daughters, in keeping with the social expectations of the time. As literature reflects real life, one might ask: What would happen if the surviving family members were still relatively young, including the widow, and the entailed estate proved insufficient to ensure the comfort of both the survivors and the heir’s family? Jane and Elizabeth attempted to explain to her the nature of an entail. They had often attempted it before: but it was a subject on which Mrs. Bennet was beyond the reach of reason; and she continued to rail bitterly against the cruelty of settling an estate away from a family of five daughters, in favour of a man whom nobody cared anything about. I cannot be otherwise than concerned at being the means of injuring your amiable daughters, and beg leave to apologize for it, as well as to assure you of my readiness to make them every possible amends; but of this hereafter. (A letter from Mr. Collins)