Rimbaud's girl

But even if she is ten times smarter than other girls, mothers will never feel at ease. "Don't... don't make me a grandmother too early. Understand?"

Vitaly nodded.

Mrs. Rimbaud took out a purse, "Here is 200 francs, don't list the money in hundreds."

"Got it, mother."

Even with Isabel as a small light bulb, Vitaly was very happy to play with Gabriel.Ignore Isabelle's words and round up to a solo date.

Sitting in the Oran family's carriage, go shopping for a new dress first.

Isabel couldn't see enough when she entered a women's clothing store in London.She has never been to a fashion store in Paris, so she really has never seen anything in the world.Today's London women's clothing is still following the trend of Parisian women's clothing, while men's clothing is London-style leading Europe.

The skirts of adult women have abandoned the lantern-like long skirts with panniers in the 50s, and changed them to long skirts with fitted bodice and hip pads or half-moon panniers to highlight the buttocks; home skirts and girl skirts There are no hip pads or panniers, the length reaches the ground, and some are on booties.The general formula is that the higher the status, the longer the skirt length. Sometimes aristocratic women even add a 2-meter-long train behind the skirt.

Vitaly doesn't like panniers, she thinks it's unnatural, she is still young, in a few years, maybe the fashion trend will change again, and it will become a complete abandonment of panniers.

Gabriel bought Isabel a new pale pink dress, and Vitaly two ball skirts, two pairs of leather shoes, and matching petticoats.

"Want to take me to the dance?" Vitaly's eyes sparkled.

"Correct."

"Where? Who are the guests?"

"Count Talian's family. Those nobles who lost their fiefs."

"You—do they have dances often?"

"Yes, but it is far inferior to those in Paris and Versailles. Your dress," he pinched her skirt, "in the eyes of countesses and duchesses, even their maids are worse than this." Good." He switched back to French.

Vitaly glared at him: Can you speak?

Gabriel didn't know, "When the emperor holds a New Year's ball, it costs at least tens of thousands of francs a night; those ladies and ladies who receive invitations can spend tens of thousands of francs on skirts and jewelry, and the dance skirt Will never wear it a second time."

Vitaly, Isabel: "Wow!"

Vitaly immediately imagined a scene of feasting and feasting in her mind.The extravagance in the court is actually beyond her imagination. She can only refer to the scenes of European courts in the movies that are almost forgotten in her memory.In short, court balls are occasions to show off their wealth. Women compete for beauty and compare each other, and men do not give up.

Gabriel had grown up in that environment, which was very different from her.

This was the first time she was so clearly aware of the class difference between them.

She became sullen.

"What's the matter?" Gabriel asked puzzledly, "Why are you suddenly upset? It's this dress, don't you like it?" He wondered that she was still in high spirits just now.Girls like to wear new clothes, and they are happy to wear new skirts.

"The dress is very nice, I like it very much." She lowered her head and fiddled with the lace on the skirt waist, "It's just... I haven't been to that kind of prom, I've never been to a prom before."

"Are you afraid?"

She shook her head.

"a little nervous?"

She nodded.

"It's okay, I'll stay with you." He lowered his head slightly, touching his forehead to hers, "If you're worried about my family's title, since I went into exile, my family is no longer a nobleman, and the fiefs are gone, what kind of nobleman is that? What? Those people just won't give up their titles, like queens, like Eugène."

He mentioned the queen of the empire without a country, and Vitaly was very interested, "What is the queen like now? I heard that the queen is a famous beauty, even more beautiful than Queen Elizabeth of Vienna."

He rubbed her face with his fingers, soft, smooth, warm, and elastic girly skin.He was absent-minded, "The queen is still very beautiful, but she has been in a bad mood these past few years, not as good as when she was in Paris."

"How old is the queen?"

"40s."

Commoner women in their 40s will be old and haggard under the pressure of life, but Eugenie, the queen of the empire, must be well maintained, and she looks like 30 years old at most.During the Second Empire, there were portraits of queens everywhere in France. The French people loved this beautiful queen with exquisite appearance. Her portrait appeared in albums and decorations. Queen Eugenie in her youth was indeed a rare beauty with exquisite features. The nose is small, the bridge of the nose is thin and high, and it sets off the blue eyes of a girl.

Eugenie was 27 years old when she got married. The newly crowned queen has a very famous oil painting portrait, wearing a pearl crown and several layers of pearl necklaces on her white neck.Vitaly noticed that the queen is only one year and two months younger than Mrs. Rimbaud, but the 1-year-old queen looks like a 27-year-old girl, and the 17-year-old queen will also be a graceful and beautiful woman; Married at the age of 47, 27 years old this year, and brought up 48 children alone, she is an ordinary middle-aged woman in a small French town, with dark complexion and loose skin, which is incomparable to the queen.

Then she thought of Madame Orland, or the Baroness Orland.The title of Baron of Oran was left by Gabriel's maternal grandfather, and the Oran family had no male heir; Gabriel's father was the youngest son of an English earl. After marrying Miss Oran, he changed his surname and inherited The title of the Lan family.

Mrs. Oran is 5 years younger than Mrs. Rimbaud, and she has been pampered since she was a child. She must look down on Mrs. Rimbaud, a middle-aged woman from a small town who was born as a village girl.

She was distraught again.

She thought that Mrs. Rimbaud was inferior to Mrs. Oran in terms of knowledge, but her mother was a good mother who was diligent and caring for her children. She didn't want her mother to be looked down upon.But she also knew that this was inevitable.

You can make money, a lot of money, but your "birth" cannot be changed, it has been set since you were born.

The new dress didn't save Vitaly either, so much so that she didn't pay much attention to Gabriel at lunch.Gabriel didn't understand what the problem was, and he kept trying to make her happy.

After 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Vitaly took Isabel back to the apartment.

Mrs. Rimbaud was surprised. She thought they would have dinner out before returning.But of course it's a good thing to come back so early, she doesn't have to worry.

Arthur Rimbaud was recovering from a bad cold.He had been ill for a few days before, and he thought that his cold would be cured soon, but he didn't expect it to be so severe that he couldn't get out of bed with a fever, and he couldn't write back to Charleville.Fortunately, Gabriel went to pick up his mother and sisters.

Arthur still liked this boy who might become his brother-in-law in the future. Gabriel was much better at handling affairs than him, and he was also very rich. It would be absolutely no problem to take care of his sister in the future.But he never thought about class issues, only worried about economic issues.

During these few months in London, he was initially sad and angry that Verlaine would hurt him; after this stage, he began to think about more practical issues: how to make money.

Absolutely no money, this is a fact he has long known.If Vitaly wants to marry Gabriel smoothly, the family must be able to provide a dowry of at least 5 francs.

Part of the dowry can be real estate, it doesn’t matter where it is, as long as you can receive the rent every year; in terms of cash, the 3 francs that uncle and Vitaly asked for back from the last trip to Dijon are still in the bank. He is going to discuss with his mother about the money and leave it all to Vitaly; he is going to give up his future inheritance and leave his part to Isabel to make up for Isabel's failure to get the 3 francs that belong to her. The loss of that part of the family; the small shop at home was left to Frederick; as for the dowry gap of more than 1 francs, he had to find a way to make up for it.

Gabriel has been telling him that he should consider applying for Oxford University. He calculated the tuition fees and living expenses. The cost of Oxford University and the University of Paris are not much different. If he goes to Oxford to study, he will live with Gabriel , can return the apartment in Paris, Drae will live with Fran, and Vitaly will live in Flaubert's house, so that they can save 500 francs a year in rent and 200 francs in other expenses.

Why did Gabriel keep encouraging him to go to Oxford? Now he has figured it out: this kid wants Vitaly to go to Oxford too.well!From the perspective of a friend, he has to say that Gabriel's thinking is completely fine; but from the perspective of his brother, he wants to kill this brat.

In the past few days, Gabriel came over every morning to pick up Sister Rimbaud and go out to play.

He hadn't mentioned the Orans these days, and neither had Vitaly.She was still thinking that the Orans might look down on Mrs. Rimbaud, but since they hadn't met, she could pretend it wasn't important.

Gabriel was a good landlord, and he took them shopping, eating, and drinking afternoon tea, and he spent money generously.Vitaly also wanted to spend money, but Gabriel asked seriously, "Do you think I can't even afford an afternoon tea?"

There seems to be something wrong. "But I can't always let you spend money. I changed some pounds." She took out the purse.

Gabriel was very surprised, "You are my girlfriend, I treat you to dinner and afternoon tea, isn't that what I should do?"

Hmm...it seems to be oh.This is the consciousness and responsibility of men in this era. Expenses such as accompanying women to go out, eating, drinking and having fun cannot make women spend money.But on the other hand, this also means that women do not have economic power, so going out and spending money is "a man's business."Women "spend their own money" only when they go shopping alone or with servants.And at least 6% of them are for men or family consumption.

It is the annual big data analysis of a certain treasure in later generations, and women consume more for their families.

Vitaly wants to buy him something again, but looking at the prices of men's clothing and accessories in the store, the amount of money in her hand can be said to be more or less, and she may only be able to buy a dozen handkerchiefs or something up.

She remembered that she had indeed prepared him a present: a handkerchief with his initials embroidered on it.I chose the best cotton handkerchiefs and linen handkerchiefs on the market in Paris, bought a dozen of each, embroidered them in my spare time, and stacked them neatly in the packing box, preparing to give him as a Christmas present.

This gift seemed a bit slight, but she couldn't think of a better gift.He has no shortage of clothing and the like, but she can't afford jewelry and the like, and it's really hard to find any suitable gifts.

She tries to ask him what present he wants, and she amuses him.

"Do you want to give me a gift?" He smiled and pinched her cheek.

"Don't pinch my face." She glanced at him.

"Little fool, you don't need to give me any special gifts. I'm very happy that you can come to London. I don't need anything, but... I lack your company. Do you know what my classmates at Oxford say?"

She widened her eyes: "Did you tell others?"

"Of course! Do you know what Oxford students are like? They drink all day and night, and half of them don't go to class very much, or they are drunk when they go to class, or they don't attend class at all. They just need a A college diploma, I don’t care what I’m studying.”

"Speak the key."

"I mean, they also—" He glanced at Isabel.

Vitaly motioned for Isabel to cover her ears.Isabel pursed her lips and covered her ears reluctantly.

Gabriel smiled and whispered in her ear, "They're going to find that kind of woman, you know—"

"prostitute?"

"more or less."

"What about you? Have you looked for it?" She asked vigilantly.

"No. I'm still young and I don't want to be contaminated with that." He had an "I'm very good" expression. "They think you have a girlfriend, or a fiancee, and it doesn't affect you to find another woman at all."

There was a disgusted expression on Vitaly's face, "yo—"

Her little expression was very funny, so he couldn't help kissing her loudly on the cheek.

"Don't look for that kind of woman. If you get syphilis, it will be over! Syphilis will die, and when you die, you will still be ugly, and you will still smell bad, and it will hurt so much that it will hurt you in the middle of the night Can't sleep."

He hurriedly said: "I know, I know, I'm not an idiot!"

Vitaly thought to herself what kind of virtues are you men!Are there fewer royal families, nobles and art circle bigwigs suffering from syphilis?A man doesn't care that his death will be ugly, he just wants to have a good time, okay?

Is that kind of thing between men and women so cool?

She no longer remembers many things from the past (or future generations), and she is getting more and more familiar with life in the 19th century and getting used to it.

In fact, he shouldn't tell her these things, isn't he afraid to scare her away?Or was he actually giving a forewarning of something that might have happened?She looked at him suspiciously.

"Where are you going today?"

"The National Gallery of Art."

"Where? Which street?"

"Near Trafalgar Square, not far from Charing Cross Road. There are many paintings there, and some works by Da Vinci. Don't you like Da Vinci very much?"

He was also very caring, remembering that she was studying painting, and taking her out was not only for shopping and eating, but also took her to visit art galleries, which was considered very careful.

Forget it, let's not ask him what bad habits he learned in Oxford for the time being.He is a bright boy, not too bright and sensitive like Arthur.Arthur's problem is that he is deeply affected by the separation between himself and the times, so he is almost self-destructive; Gabriel does not have this problem at all, he can adapt to the times and society very well, and will not want to adventure.

The architectural appearance of the National Gallery of Art refers to Greek temples, with several colonnades in front of the gate.

There are indeed many paintings in the art gallery, from the Renaissance era to the contemporary era.

Very unexpectedly, Vitaly met an unexpected person in the art gallery: Vincent van Gogh.

He stood in front of a Titian, motionless, for an unknown how long.

He was wearing a black and gray suit and a men's top hat that is popular in London nowadays. His face was a little haggard, and he was - thin.

He had an ordinary appearance, not handsome, but ordinary. After his face became thinner, his cheekbones protruded a bit, and he was not very good-looking.

She tried calling him, "Mr. Van Gogh?"

He didn't seem to hear.

Gabriel asked quietly: "You know him? Who is it?"

"Acquainted in Paris, he is an employee of Goupil's company."

Gabriel suddenly realized, "Gupil, I've heard of it."

She called again, "Mr. Van Gogh."

Only then did Vincent come back to his senses.

He looked at the girl in front of him in surprise, "You, why are you here? Are you in London?"

"My mother, my sister and I came to visit my brother in London. This is my sister Isabel. What about you? Why are you here? I thought Goupil would be busy before Christmas." The pre-Christmas sales season is almost full of business It's hot, and so is Goupil & Co.

Vincent smiled hastily, "I'm very busy..."

"Do you come to art galleries often?"

"Yes, I come here often, whenever I have time." As he spoke, he suddenly sighed.

"It's my first time here, can you tell me what paintings are worth seeing in the National Gallery?"

So Vincent van Gogh became an amateur tour guide—

He can speak eloquently about most of the paintings in the art museum: author, theme, color, light and shade, all collected in the National Art Museum are recognized as high-quality goods, and there are no clumsy paintings. All worth explaining.

When she introduced Vincent and Gabriel to each other, she didn't say that Gabriel was her boyfriend, but Vincent understood when she saw her holding Gabriel's arm.

He couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

Vitaly didn't mention that she had a boyfriend before. Now it seems that although this Mr. Oran is not very old, he may have been born quite well. After all, clothes can be bought with money, and the pampered behavior since childhood is not a temporary thing. You can learn it in half a day.

Of course a pretty girl would be liked by a lot of people, he knew that, just like Ursula—ah, Ursula!

His mind was in turmoil.

After returning to London from Paris, he saw Úrsula again every day.

He didn't have much experience, but he could still understand that Vitaly was unlikely to be a good wife and mother, not the girl he needed who could settle down in the family.He is very sensible, Ursula is more suitable for him, and is more likely to be a good wife and mother, but Vitaly is like the bright moon in the night, he can't help being attracted by the beautiful girl.

Vitaly is the ideal, Ursula the reality.

After struggling for more than a month, he finally made love to Ursula last night.

It wasn't a marriage proposal, but a courtship, but he didn't expect that Ursula rejected him decisively.During his stay in Paris, Úrsula became engaged to a former lodger.The lodger was an Englishman, a fine young man.

Vincent was taken aback. She hadn't expected rejection at all, and he couldn't accept rejection.

Vitaly did not ask Úrsula, she might have forgotten that he had mentioned Úrsula.She treats him as an ordinary "acquaintance", very measured.Mr. Oran didn't look him in the eye very much, and he didn't care.

He is very good at talking in familiar fields, as long as he is asked to talk about those paintings, he can talk endlessly, and it seems that he can forget his failure in this way.

He didn't expect to see Vitaly the day after his courtship failed, and he didn't know how to face her.

His heart is getting more and more confused, and he is getting more and more confused about what he wants.

His plans for a wife and a family seemed remote at the moment, and because of Úrsula's refusal he might not be able to continue living with Mrs. Royle.

And Vitaly, the girl he dared not approach, suddenly appeared in front of him.

His mind was disturbed, and he felt really miserable.

Isabelle was a little girl and didn't know what to do; Gabriel could already see that this sad-looking young man seemed to... like Vitaly.

He wasn't sure, but Vincent's gaze was always on Vitaly's face, which was still noticeable.

Vitaly is a beautiful girl, and a beautiful girl will attract attention wherever she walks, but the glance of passers-by is not the same as the focused gaze.

Gabriel seemed to discover for the first time that he might still have a rival in love.

He felt very uncomfortable, it seemed that something "belonging" to him was coveted by others, which suddenly aroused his possessive desire, and he skillfully terminated Vitaly's plan to continue watching, Bin He bid farewell to Vincent politely, and took the Rimbaud sisters out of the National Gallery.

Vitaly didn't suspect anything. She thought Gabriel might have some secret agreement with Mrs. Rimbaud. He would take her back to the apartment every day before dinner and never stay for dinner.

Mrs. Rimbaud didn't like to keep people for dinner. She didn't even mention it.

Because of the lack of human relations and social etiquette, Vitaly didn't care about it.She also thought that Gabriel had been well-clothed and well-fed since he was a child, and he probably couldn't get used to Mrs. Rimbaud's home-cooked food.

She wondered why Vincent didn't stay in the sales hall of Goupil's company, but why did he go to the National Gallery?It is said that he has lived in London for almost a year, and he should have been to the National Gallery many, many times.He also visited the Louvre and the Luxembourg Palace in Paris to visit art exhibitions. He was very comfortable in art exhibitions, art galleries, and museums, because art is much simpler than human communication.

The author has something to say: *I looked at the 6000-word income list today, and I was shocked. Not only the income is not as good as the 3000-received articles, but even the 7000-received articles are not as good. Maybe more than half of my [-]-plus collections are worthless. It's fake.The early data of this book is better than that of Little Austin, but after the clip, it will not work. I don’t think there is anything wrong with it. Maybe it’s too plain and no one likes to read it.