It has often been repeated at Pemberley that in JA's day, marriage was a woman's career. After one failure(?), Mrs. Clay is looking for a better job, or maybe even a change of career! She has not only herself but two children to think of, and it can't be fun living off her parents' charity. If she *is* thinking of marrying for a comfortable lifestyle, she's only doing what many another woman has done before and since. The worst we know of her so far is that she doesn't have Anne's virtues (but who does?), that she is a flatterer, and that Lady Russell believes there's something dangerous about her character, but doesn't say what. It's not Mrs. Clay's fault that Elizabeth favours her over Anne, and I suspect that if it weren't Mrs. Clay, someone else would be favoured instead. I'm sorry, but I've always felt a whiff of class snobbery in JA's attitude towards Mrs. Clay - how dare this upstart lawyer's daughter aim so far above her "station" in life? All I can say is that so far, I know no real harm of her, and she has my sympathy! ;-)