Could you explain the highlighted sentence to me?, thank you in advance.
This is about Charlotte Lucas, Elizabeth Bennet's friend in Jane Austen's "Pride and prejudice":

"Without thinking highly either of men or of matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only honourable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune and however uncertain of giving happiness, ***must be their pleasantest preservation from want.***"

Question

Could you explain the highlighted sentence to me?, thank you in advance.
This is about Charlotte Lucas, Elizabeth Bennet's friend in Jane Austen's "Pride and prejudice":

"Without thinking highly either of men or of matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only honourable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune and however uncertain of giving happiness, ***must be their pleasantest preservation from want.***"

Answer

The sentence means marriage is the most pleasant protection against poverty for these young women. If they don't get married, they probably won't make a lot of money, so getting married is their best option for financial security. The confusing part of the sentence is the use of the word "want" in "...preservation from want." Here, "want" means "poverty." If you are poor, you are "in want" because you want more things. "Preservation from" simply means "protection from."

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