The correct and only answer is that 11,616 ladies made proposals of
marriage. Here are all the details, which the reader can check for
himself with the original statements. Of 10,164 spinsters, 8,085 married
bachelors, 627 married widowers, 1,221 were declined by bachelors, and
231 declined by widowers. Of the 1,452 widows, 1,155 married bachelors,
and 297 married widowers. No widows were declined. The problem is not
difficult, by algebra, when once we have succeeded in correctly stating
it.