Shadow of great britain

Morning time always goes by in a hurry. However, some people have a fulfilling morning, while some people's day starts at noon.

Elder finished washing up in the bathroom and stretched out of the door.

As soon as he walked down the stairs, he saw Alexandre Dumas, covered in dust, walking back from outside with a few garlic cloves in his hand and a smile.

Elder smacked his mouth twice and asked: "Why do you French people always like to eat garlic? What do you want? To freshen your breath?"

When Alexandre Dumas heard this, he retorted mercilessly: "It's better to like garlic than girls from London. Since I arrived here, this is the first time I feel that the cows in France are so beautiful."

After finishing speaking, Alexandre Dumas went to Darwin who was sitting on the sofa in the living room reading a book and asked: "Charles, please tell me in detail about that 'epileptic disease' later. I was a little fascinated by it last night. I I have to admit that I used to be prejudiced against British people, but it wasn’t until I met you that I realized that there were people among British people that I could communicate with in human language.”

Darwin raised his finger and scratched the side of his face: "Are you complimenting me?"

Alexandre Dumas shook his head and pointed at Elder standing on the stairs: "No, I am belittling the idiot standing over there. Of course, I have to admit frankly that his head full of erotic waste is not completely It’s useless, but if you put him in a suitable environment, he can at least provide some trivial navigational knowledge.”

Hearing this, Elder shrugged and shouted to Alexandre Dumas in a semi-sarcastic tone: "I hope the combat effectiveness of the French Navy can be as tough as your mouth."

Alexandre Dumas fired back: "That's not something you need to worry about. You have to be lucky that Britain is an island, otherwise you would have become second-class citizens in France."

"Really?" Elder counterattacked unconvinced: "I think even the Royal Navy's combat effectiveness after landing can be as good as that of the French artillery."

"Oh! Thank God!" Alexandre Dumas clasped his hands together, as if begging God for forgiveness: "I beg you, please don't say that. In the French context, the phrase 'British soldiers came ashore' represents The meaning is not something that can be stated casually in public.”

Elder scratched his head in confusion and said, "Why?"

Alexandre Dumas glanced at him: "Have you forgotten what color the uniforms of British soldiers are? In France, 'British soldiers ashore' is usually used by an elegant French lady to express her physical discomfort."

As soon as Alexandre Dumas finished speaking, Arthur, who was immersed in reading the newspaper, couldn't help but glance at the red devil who was sitting leisurely and humming a tune.

Agares caught his gaze keenly. The red devil was stunned for a moment. He glanced down at his dark red skin, then pointed at Arthur angrily and shouted: "Arthur! I'm warning you, don't think that I am I don’t know what you are thinking!”

Arthur's eyes drifted slightly, and then fell back on Alexandre Dumas.

He put the newspaper aside and asked: "So Alexander, do you have a clue about your novel? I have to attend General Codrington's party next Sunday. During this week, you can say anything. Write the article for me."

Dumas threw the garlic in his hand on the coffee table, and then stuffed his body into the sofa in the living room.

"Why are you in a hurry? This should be a quite long story. I have to think about it carefully. And for such a long story, it will take me at least half a year before I can deliver the finished product to you."

Arthur picked up the teacup and said, "You are so anxious for money, can you wait half a year? Why don't I give you a suggestion? If your start can be a hit at General Codrington's party, I can consider helping you." You contact a newspaper with a good circulation, and you deliver a few chapters every week and publish them in serial form. In this way, if the response from readers is not good, you can cut your losses in time and consider starting over with a different idea."

Alexandre Dumas was stunned for a long time when he heard this, then clapped his thigh and stood up excitedly: "How did you come up with this idea? You get money once when you serialize it, and you can get money again when you finish the manuscript and publish a book separately! What a genius idea! To It doesn’t matter much, but do you British people know how to do business?”

Arthur nodded slightly: "By the way, what do you think about the suggestion I gave you? Just change the title of the book. Instead of calling it "The Revenge of Edmond Dantes", it might as well be called "Monte Cristo" "Count", readers don't care about Edmond Dantès, they prefer the story of the count than a little unknown character.

I know that you may want to imitate Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" by naming it this way, but you may not know that "Robinson Crusoe" is just the abbreviation of the title of the book. Once Defoe became famous, books with such unremarkable titles could be sold, so publishers did not bother to print his original title on the cover. "

"The abbreviation of "Robinson Crusoe"?" Alexandre Dumas touched his curly head: "Then what is its full name?"

Arthur curled his lips, stood up, took out an old book with a yellowed cover from the bookshelf in the living room, and threw it on the coffee table.

There was only a bang and a burst of dust rose from the coffee table.

Alexandre Dumas moved his face closer, and he finally saw clearly the full title of the first edition of "Robinson Crusoe" printed in 1719 - "The Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, the York Sailor:" For twenty-eight years, he lived alone on an uninhabited island off the coast of America. The island was near the mouth of the Oroonok River. After the shipwreck, he washed up on the coast and became the only survivor. The book also tells how incredible his fate was in the end. Land Saved by Pirates".

This long series of shocking sentences almost takes up the entire cover. If a reader does not understand the situation, he or she may think that the publisher wants to save paper, so the story begins on the cover.

Seeing this, Alexandre Dumas finally stopped insisting. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and changed his words: "Okay, then I will listen to you."

As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly heard a sound of shaking the doorbell from outside the door - ding ding ding.

Elder yawned and opened the door. What appeared in front of him was an old gentleman in a tuxedo.

The old gentleman smiled and took off his hat in greeting, then asked: "Is Mr. Arthur Hastings at home?"

"you are?"

"I am the steward of the Rothschild family. Our young master Lionel Rothschild has sent me to deliver a hunting invitation to Mr. Hastings. If he is not here, please send this letter to Give it to him, and inform Lord Hastings that Master Lionel has asked to meet him near Marble Arch at eight o'clock next Sunday morning."

When Arthur heard this, he couldn't help but stood up and walked to the door. At a glance, he found that the other person's face was somewhat familiar, as if he was the servant who followed Lionel in the real estate trading floor that day.

He smiled and stretched out his hand to invite the other party in: "If you're not busy, you'd better come in and have a cup of tea first."

The old butler smiled and nodded and accepted Arthur's invitation. He walked to the living room, first glanced at Alexandre Dumas, who was leaning carelessly on the sofa, and then looked at Darwin, who was meditating on a natural history notebook. A preliminary judgment was made on the identities of several people.

After a brief greeting, Arthur took out a white porcelain teacup from the cupboard and filled the old butler's tea cup himself.

When the old housekeeper saw this, he couldn't help but tactfully advised: "Mr. Hastings, in my opinion, it is better for you to hire a servant who can provide simple housekeeping services. This house has six rooms. You and your My friends live in four rooms, and the other two can just hire a coachman and a housekeeper. If you find it troublesome to hire servants yourself, we can also 'recruit' them for you.

The social circle around Hyde Park is not too low. If guests come to your home and you, the host, are busy all the time and have no time to entertain them, your social reputation is likely to be reduced. "

When Arthur heard this, of course he understood what the other party meant, he smiled and nodded.

"Thank you very much for your suggestion. If I have the opportunity in the future, I will seriously consider it. But right now I really have no time to be distracted. You should know that Scotland Yard has been handling several major cases recently, and it also has to monitor public opinion at all times. I'm away from home most of the time, and free time like today is really rare.

Being so busy, I haven't had the chance to explore social areas for the time being. For example, you just said that Lionel wants to invite me to go hunting outside the city next Sunday. Although I have always wanted to go to the forest with him to hunt rabbits and chat, but I have already made arrangements for next Sunday. I am really sorry. "

"Have you made plans for next Sunday?"

The old butler was slightly surprised at first, but after a moment, not only was he not disappointed or angry, but he looked at Arthur in his heart again.

He smiled and asked: "Although it's rude to ask, but I don't know what activities you plan to participate in next Sunday? If it is a date, or to get acquainted with friends, I happen to know a few good restaurants , maybe I can recommend it to you.”

Arthur didn't intend to hide anything from him. On the contrary, he even wanted to ask something from the old Rothschild housekeeper.

Because he was really unsure about the party held by General Codrington next Sunday.

Before this, he had never been to any upper-class gathering, and he didn't know what to prepare for.

If the old butler is willing to give some pointers, that would of course be the best for Arthur.

He asked: "Do you know General Codrington of the Channel Fleet? He is going back to London for vacation next week, so Mrs. Codrington plans to hold a party at home, and I happened to receive an invitation."

"Ah... Mrs. Codrington..." When the old housekeeper heard this, he immediately understood what was going on: "I probably know why General Codrington invited you. Does he want you to be at the party?" Tell them about the emerging field of electromagnetism?"

Arthur smiled and took a sip of tea, and he joked: "Did anyone in Rothschild also receive an invitation? Why do you know so much about it?"

The old housekeeper chuckled: "No, no, you may have been busy with official duties before, so you don't know much about London's social circles. London's ladies and ladies are divided into many groups, and Mrs. Codrington is one of them. Leader of a well-known group.

It has to be said that the ladies in that group generally have quite interesting and idiosyncratic personalities, so it's not surprising that they would invite a budding scientist like you. After all, they have been doing this kind of thing since the 1950s and 1960s. "

When Arthur heard this, he was also a little curious: "So, what kind of group does Mrs. Codrington belong to?"

The old butler took a sip of tea. He knew that it would be quite difficult to explain this group to Arthur.

he asked.

"Do you know the 'Bluestocking Society' founded by Lady Montague? Or you can call it 'Pedagogical Women'. I think you may have heard of the founder of the Bluestocking Society, Lady Montague, who established this society. Motto - No cards are allowed in my salon, no more talking about whose daughter cannot find her husband's family, or whose servant has eloped. I don't want to pass the time in a boring way, we want to talk about some meaningful topics.

If you want them to leave a good first impression on you, I suggest you choose to wear a pair of blue socks for everyday use on the day of the party, because the ladies of that club are just like the name of the group - blue Sock club. They are neither the white silk stockings favored by the upper class nor the noble and elegant black silk stockings. The ladies in that society are quite rebellious. "