Mary King is a resident of Meryton. She dances with Charles Bingley at the Meryton Assembly,[1] but she is not mentioned again until she inherits ten thousand pounds from her grandfather; now an heiress, she is courted by George Wickham. Elizabeth Bennet, the previous object of Wickham's attentions, dismisses the relationship, but her aunt Mrs. Gardiner is disturbed that he would court a girl who recently lost her grandparent and that she would accept his advances under those circumstances.[2]
When they return to Longbourn, Lydia Bennet tells her two eldest sisters that Mary left for Liverpool to stay with her uncle indefinitely and rejoices that Wickham is "safe." Elizabeth, who had just heard the story of Wickham's attempt to elope with Georgiana Darcy, thinks Miss King has made a lucky escape.[3]
Elizabeth describes her as a "a very good kind of girl" and says she knows no harm of her,[2] but when Lydia says Miss King is a "nasty little freckled thing" and therefore no one could care for her,[3] she remembers when she first realized Wickham had abandoned her for an heiress and she considered herself liberal for imagining that he would still prefer her if only she had ten thousand pounds of her own.[4]