THE NAMES OF the prospective buyers were Jacqueline and Adam Whitman, and they offered the Bennets $915,000 for the Tudor, which offended Mrs. Bennet so keenly that she took to her bed immediately upon hearing the figure. Shane had emailed a scanned copy of the offer to Liz as dinner was concluding, and the amount had left Mrs. Bennet unable even to watch television in the den; she needed to manage her distress from a prone position.

“You’ll end up meeting them somewhere in the middle,” Liz said from the doorway of her mother’s room. “This isn’t the last word.”

“Leave me be,” her mother replied. “You’ve done enough damage.”