ever since many years ago I read an edition of P&P where one said in a footnote that the prospect of Lydia coming "upon the town", which the gossips of Meryton would have found more advantageous for conversation than the news of her impending marriage, meant that she would be left penniless if Wickham abandoned her and would have to apply for parish relief. He or she must have been a more pure-minded individual than I am, since I thought and still think it to be a euphemism for entering the world's oldest profession. (And on this point Mr Shapard and I are in complete accord, as he doesn't think it has anything to do with parish relief either).