Rimbaud's girl

Felix cursed those nuns cursingly, not caring at all about being heard by his niece.Vitaly automatically blocked the swear words.

Uncle has no major problems, but he likes to drink, smoke some cigarettes, and doesn't mess with men and women. The land rent income is enough for him and his cousin Charles to live on. He is idle and just wants to survive on the ancestral field, without thinking about expanding the family business at all.

Cousin Charles is almost a virtue.

Charles stopped going to school at the age of 13. He hangs out with a few teenagers all day long, beating chickens and chasing dogs, which is very annoying; now that he is a little older, he has also learned to drink and smoke.Felix doesn't know how to educate the child, and basically raises him, just to let him have enough food and clothing, nothing else.

Vitaly didn't dislike her cousin. Charles was messing around outside, but he always acted obediently when he got home—if he offended his uncle, he would have no pocket money.Felix was not generous to Charles, and he never said that Charles would inherit the property of his husband's family in the future. Instead, he said that when Vitaly and Isabel got married in the future, they would give them some fields as a dowry.

Felix inherited most of the property of the Jufu family. He is a big landowner in Roches, with an annual income of about 6000 francs. In the past two years, he has not had such a large income due to the war.The deposit should be at least 5 francs. He should not be as good at saving money as his grandfather. Mrs. Rimbaud could get a dowry of 3 francs, and the family's cash deposit should be at least 10 francs.

The sum—whether it was thirty thousand francs or a hundred thousand francs—seemed a lot, calculated with the standard of living in Charleville, not so much in terms of the standard of living in Paris.Arthur said that the night shift taxi in Paris—equivalent to the night taxis of later generations—starts at two francs; the annual rent for an ordinary apartment in a wealthy district is about 3 francs; The lunch (about the level of a restaurant lunch set in later generations) costs two francs, with a bottle of not-so-good red wine; the cheaper set meal does not come with red wine.

Living in Paris is not easy!

Calculated, if a family of five wants to maintain a standard of living close to that of Charleville in Paris, 1500 francs is definitely not enough, at least 2500 francs are enough; The figure of spending 600 francs is relatively accurate, and it is not bad.

It costs less than 500 francs a year to go to a monastery girls’ school. She and Isabel only spend 600 francs, including tuition, accommodation, and food, which is a little more than 1 franc per person per day; there is no summer vacation, only 1 months The winter vacation, the reason why the winter vacation is held for 1 months, is because the weather is cold and additional heating costs are required. Therefore, the monastery shrewdly lets the students go home for the winter, which is called "Christmas vacation".

Vitaly worries about money all day long.

Money is a good thing, if you don't have money, you can't do it.She's too young to go out and make money now.But she had little idea of ​​what she could do for a living in the future.

The small environment at home is not good. My mother is a devout Christian, rigid, strict, and old-fashioned. She only knows that girls must get married in the future. She doesn't understand and can't think of other ways of living.The general environment outside is not good either. Although some universities have started to recruit girls, those girls can be imagined to be girls from the least well-off families. The economic conditions of Rimbaud's family can't afford to go to college, and she has never accepted it. Systematic education, let alone passing the entrance examination.

So the top priority should be to find a way to study at Charleville College first, and then to find a way to study in Paris.

During this period, she had to find a way to ask Captain Rimbaud for money. If she could get back the child support for so many years, both she and Arthur would have the money to go to school in Paris.

Ok!So happy to decide!

The life in Luoshi Village is very comfortable. There is no need to get up early to cook, and it is very comfortable to wipe the floor at night.

Sleeping until the sun is three poles every day, the body of a teenager needs a lot of sleep to develop better; he eats meat every day, and even breakfast is ham, which is delicious.She doesn't like sausage, but she likes ham very much.At night, it's either chicken soup or bone soup. Every meal is shiny and full.

She has nothing to do after dinner, and Cousin Charles will take her out to play.Not all of them have a good character, but since they are the cousins ​​of their friends, they won't bully her.They hung around the nearby villages, made her dress in boy's clothes, drive one of those rural carts, pretend to be a Roman general, and play war games.

Because of the war, many wealthy families in Charleville and neighboring Mezières fled the city with their families and lived in country villas or with relatives in the country. There are also many young masters and ladies from rich families around here .

Even if the young masters are wearing country boy clothes, they can be seen at a glance that they are not country boys.

14, 5-year-old boy, wearing a countryman's ramie stand-up collar shirt, dark gray thin woolen short jacket, oversized trousers, showing the fine leather shoes worn under his feet; the developing boy has long hands and feet, A little uncoordinated and clumsy, with a round face and baby fat; while despising this kind of country child's play-->>

The play is too naive, while playing happily.

The boys yelled "Come on", holding a long stick or a longer branch under their armpits, pretending that it was the wooden spear of an ancient knight, and poking at each other as the carriages passed by.It was a dangerous game, and there was a high chance of poking each other, but the boys didn't care.

Charles asked Vitaly to stand on the carriage board, pretending that she was a soldier, and gave her a long Roman sword made of wood.She brandished the wooden sword, shouting wow wow wow.

"Go ahead!"

The country boy won, but the city young master was not convinced.

"That's because you have a lot of people, it doesn't count!" The competitive young man shouted unwillingly.

Charles and his friends laughed loudly, "I lost, do you want to play tricks?"

The young man pursed his lips in displeasure, "That's not it!" He took out a gold coin from his jacket pocket and threw it on the muddy floor, "Here!"

Vitaly frowned suddenly: This is the young master of the city!

Charles and the others didn't care, a boy picked up the gold coin and handed it to Charles.Charles wiped the dirt on the gold coins with his hands, and cheered: "Go! Go drink!"

The boys ran away with a whoop.

Charles drove the carriage and took Vitaly away.

She looked back at the city young master and thought he was stupid.

The gold coin dropped by the young master was a Napoleon, and twenty francs were enough for the boys to run to the tavern and have a good meal.There is no legal regulation on the minimum drinking age in this era, and it is not uncommon for teenagers who do not go to school and do not have a serious job to spend half a day in pubs.

Not a good wine either, just cheap red wine.Ardennes is next to Champagne, good wine is unaffordable, but cheap red wine is enough.

Charles asked Vitaly if she wanted a drink, and she took a sip and found it not very tasty, not as good as Uncle Felix's usual drink.Charles took the opportunity to tease her, and asked her to steal wine from the cellar.Rich alcoholic, buy wine in terms of "barrel", put it in your cellar, and drink as much as you want.

Charles is such a bad boy!

She thought for a while, "Okay, but you have to tell Felix for me to take me and Frederick to my father." It's okay to help him steal alcohol, with conditions.

"To find Captain Rimbaud?" Charles himself was a child abandoned by his parents, and he was full of pity for his aunt's cousins.

"Ah."

"What? You want him to come home?"

"What do you want him to go home for? Ask him to give you money."

Charles gave her a wink, signaling her to be careful not to be overheard.He changed the subject, smiling and talking about where the wine barrels were placed in the cellar, and where the key to the cellar had been received by his uncle. If his uncle asked her to go to the cellar to get wine, she could secretly make a few more bottles and bring them back.

Vitaly didn't know what Charles was giving her a wink for.Do you feel that your family should not be publicized?But in fact, men who abandon their wives and daughters are not uncommon. People can only sigh, this is a scumbag, and there seems to be nothing else to say, but they all sympathize with the abandoned women and children.

Playing until evening, Charles took Vitaly home.She first went upstairs to wash her hands, washed her face and changed her clothes, and then went downstairs to eat.

Charles didn't pay that much attention, he just washed his hands.

Felix started to drink before eating as usual, and ate a greasy hoof.Vitaly thought the hoof was too fatty, so she only picked off a piece of lean meat from the hoof, and gave Charles the rest.Charles has a good appetite and eats a lot, but he has been skinny since he was a child, and no matter how much he eats, he doesn't gain weight.

He also dressed very casually, he didn't pay attention at all, and he always went out in casually worn clothes. Boys don't know why it takes so much to dress.After Vitaly came to Roche Village, because she grew taller, she couldn't wear last year's skirts, so her uncle made her two new skirts with petticoats, underwear, shirts, and long coats, and also gave them to Charles by the way. Made two new outfits.

None of the fabrics are very good, and the style is considered a fashionable Parisian style, but it is also the style of Paris half a year ago, and it has been cut by local tailors, making it a bit nondescript.

Her hair was a golden brown, about the same color as Arthur's, and fell below the shoulder blades, usually in two braids, and wore a cotton lace bonnet.Women in ordinary families in France wear this kind of soft-brimmed women's hat.In the boy's clothes in the afternoon, instead of a millinery hat, I wore a rather funny boy's bowler hat.

She wanted to cut her hair short, but Mrs. Rimbaud would not allow her to cut it as she wished.well!When can I have the freedom to cut my hair?