] I can't help feeling after the intial fire of passion at best they would have settled into the embers of toleration ;at worst the bitter ashes of disappointment...M. probably wouldn't give a hoot to find his fortune smaller than anticipated-but he would (especially if he didn't inherit from his cousin). In reduced circumstances he would be unable to indulge in the dissipate habits of the Regentcy buck. Unable to afford expensive London society he would soon grow bored in his marriage to Marianne and would probably blame her for it!

Oh, I do think that Marianne and Willoughby had considerably more going for them than say, Lydia and Wickham in P&P. You're right, though, that money would be the sticking point, and not just for Willoughby. It's all very well to say idealistically, "What does money matter when you have love?", but I don't see Marianne as the greatest money manager in the world, either, and it would get to both of them in the end. Remember the discussion she had with Elinor where E. considered 2000 pounds a year to be a very comfortable income, while M. considered it barely enough? In the face of her husband's extravagance, and with children to care for, she might buckle down and *learn* to be practical, but at least in the beginning I can see her having no clue where all their income had gone, and explaining to Elinor why they absolutely *needed* the latest extravagant purchase!