Early in the group read there was some question regarding whether Mrs Clay was divorced, widowed, or what have you. In chapter 17 it is finally stated explicitly:

Mrs. Clay... now thought it advisable to leave the room, and Anne could have said much... in defence of her friend's not very dissimilar claims to theirs... She left it to himself to recollect that Mrs. Smith was not the only widow in Bath between thirty and forty, with little to live on, and no sirname of dignity.