Can anyone help me with this quote?

He's saying that because the regiment was about to leave town...taking the men that all of the women he's speaking of are in love with...they are all depressed. They are moping around, dejected, unable to eat, drink, sleep or perform their duties at work. Only the older Bennet girls were able to continue on with their daily lives...and they caught hell for it from their younger sisters. They were told they were insensible and thought to be hard hearted. Their mother was an affectionate woman and she shared in the grief of the younger girls. She could sympathize with the heartache they were feeling because 25 years earlier it was she was heartbroken because the man she loved was being taken away from her by his service to his country. She cried for two straight days when Colonel Millar's regiment went away. She though it had actually broken her heart.