[Pride and Prejudice] Rich Lady

Things went well because the exhibition was really well attended.However, Bethlehem surrounded the mad patients with a fence, but they did not guard against the visitors. The room with the patient list and "madman portraits" that symbolized Bethlehem's hundreds of years of history was arranged like a private art exhibition. in and out.

Elizabeth found that many people felt equally heavy. They kept complaining that the church should not distribute invitation letters for such a terrible exhibition; There was a young lady stroking her chest and forehead, as if she felt very sorry for the person who was suffering from madness inside, but the movement of fainting at the right time and falling into the arms of the husband all showed that this was just an old-fashioned way for young men and women to adapt to the environment. Love trick...Elizabeth looked up at the sky, thinking that if there is a god, then it is no wonder that the god would stay away from the world after overlooking this ugly picture of the floating world. This should be an era of collapse of faith.

Mr. Darcy was silent, he didn’t want to tell Miss, according to the investigation of the church and the House of Commons, last year, the Bethlehem Madman Show, which was only held on Sundays and only charged one penny for the ticket, had an annual income of more than 6000 pounds. There are more than [-] people (Note).Things are worse now, and Bethlehem is as much of a London attraction as Bicetre was before the French Revolution.

The fire of anger has been ignited, and the madness of Bethlehem's money-making is like the last elegy-the parliament and the Anglican Church plan to close the madman's exhibition as a means to appease the people after cleaning up the cult.It is conceivable that the critics will praise their justice, mercy and humanity in the newspapers, after these righteous people have embezzled and divided up the wealth accumulated in Bethlehem.Darcy is well aware of the under-the-table deal, which is almost as hard to break as the inherent rule, the winner of the struggle takes everything from the loser, and does not think about rewarding the people who support him.This is why he would rather choose to support others than enter the House of Commons and seek government positions.

Behind a good thing is not all light, there may be a lot of shadows.Mr. Darcy only hopes to achieve his goal as soon as possible and take the lady away from this rotten soil.He really regretted not preventing Elizabeth from participating in this matter. The gentleman reflected deeply: he didn't intend to treat her as a delicate flower that could only be carefully maintained in a flower pot, but he shouldn't let her suffer from the storm.

Mr. Darcy and Ms. Darcy walked forward side by side, and he leaned slightly to protect her from being squeezed by the "tourists".

"Why don't you talk?" Elizabeth said, "You think I'm frightened?"

Her eyes are clear: "There is ignorance to be enlightened, and I believe this situation will improve soon."

Darcy believed that what she said was more than empty words, because Elizabeth immediately said: "What do you think of me opening a mad hospital? A hospital that respects patients and treats and maintains madness like the one in Ming Dynasty." Competition will lead to Come on, when more and better insane hospitals are opened, the Bethlehem Asylum with outdated treatment methods and brutal treatment of patients will no longer be an option. Changes in people's attitudes towards insanity can completely eliminate this deformed exhibition.

"Okay. I'll help you." The expression on Darcy's face softened suddenly, and he promised in a low voice.

Ten thousand words of mercy and rivers of tears are not worth one action.

In that "gallery" there are many paintings of Bethlehem's madman in different sizes. The earliest painting dates from the 15th century and is carefully framed with thin plate glass.According to the male waiter in the exhibition room, most of the paintings were donated to Bethlehem by the painters after their visits, and some of them were paintings invited by doctors who had achieved significant curative effects.The former are all crazy poses of various patients, while the latter are painted with doctors.

Elizabeth looked at the paintings of the doctors proudly showing the results of their treatments, the tall doctors, the calm patients, and the strange healing techniques on the patients. She saw the paintings of livestock popular among nobles and gentlemen in a daze. The complacent gentleman and them Huge livestock raised - what a resemblance!

And how sad, in the eyes of the doctors in Bethlehem, and tourists, the status of the insane is not much better than that of livestock.Elizabeth's idea of ​​opening a hospital for insane patients became more determined.

While she was thinking about it, she slowly approached the corner where the roster was placed. Suddenly, a brand new painting made her stop: "This is... Wickham?"

Mr. Darcy covered her eyes subconsciously, and it took a while before he replied, "Yes."

Elizabeth was stunned, and she didn't even react when she covered her eyes with her big hot and dry hands: in that painting, the doctor only took up a small part. He was holding a tray with two dark strokes painted on it. There is a huge hospital bed in front of the doctor, and Wickham is lying on it. The artist has specially dealt with the details, making his naked body and peaceful face extremely exaggerated and huge. There was a flat skin-like thing lying on top of the egg, and Wickham half-opened his eyes, hardly looking like he was treating, but enjoying.

Perhaps it was because Wickham's face was handsome enough, and the painter was obviously willing to show it clearly with virtuosity.Anyone who knows him can recognize him at a glance.

"Well, what's on it?" The young lady asked softly with a dry throat.

"A leech." Mr. Darcy gently supported the young lady to take two steps, and whispered in her ear: "That is not art, let alone a good painting that the young lady appreciates!"

Elizabeth seemed to hear the sound of gnashing her teeth. She pulled down her hand covering her eyes, and wanted to turn her head to take another look, out of sheer curiosity: "I think it is necessary for my hospital to understand the character of patients when they are admitted." She had no sympathy for Wickham, especially when she realized that he had seduced and hurt quite a few girls.

It was rare for Darcy to treat her toughly. He grabbed the young lady's waist and left the place quickly: "That's right! But can you stop looking back, it's very disgraceful!"

Is it unseemly?Compared with the other paintings, that painting is not in the same style at all, but it is a bit like Michelangelo's David sculpture, full of masculine beauty, and more seductive-now there are other people who have discovered it After reading the painting, several female guests stopped there covering their mouths.Elizabeth heard the receptionist say with sharp ears that the patient's condition has stabilized after treatment. At 12 o'clock at noon, people can watch his treatment outside through the glass, once a day, and only need to charge an extra two pence.

"us?"

"Don't even think about it!"

Darcy has been sending people to watch Wickham, Wickham is not an important person, after the pastor Marvin from Meryton came once, they abandoned the half-finished work of this bad thing, and left him here to fend for himself .But the manager of Bethlehem is obviously a qualified businessman. After seeing that pretty face, he unexpectedly came up with a good way to make money: Bethlehem arranged a room with large glass windows as Wickham's house. The residence and treatment room, with its modest tapestries, light-coloured bas-relief panels, checkered ceiling, brightly colored carpets, and wide, bright windows, made this dwelling particularly curious because it was out of place in a madhouse.They put Wickham in it, made him as charming as a Roman warrior, and opened it to the guests every day at noon to see his treatment scene - Darcy also saw a painting named "Apollo of Bethlehem" , Wickham's slightly tightened expression and posture when sucking blood from the leeches are extremely ambiguous, bringing more visitors to the exhibition in Bethlehem.

Wickham wanted good treatment, and he chose to submit to such a weird exhibition in Bethlehem.Now even if Darcy no longer pays for his "treatment" in Bethlehem, it is impossible for the asylum to let go of this patient who can attract more bills.

Wickham became famous, in this weird way.Even the gambling debts he owed and the debts of various stores were not pursued by the creditors, and some creditors even paid money to 'visit' him.

Mr. Darcy just didn't expect that Bethlehem would specially hang a painting here, so that the lady he admired could see it seriously.

Elizabeth was just a little curious about the villain's fate, especially when she recalled the bullet that was given to Wickham in anger at that time, and couldn't help but want to see where the injury was: the painting just now completely It didn't show up.

The young lady is very confident in her own marksmanship, and if the bullet passes by, it will be useless.

Mr. Darcy was a little too serious, and Elizabeth was a little apprehensive about his serious face.

The two of them stayed away from there, only to realize that they were too close and seemed too intimate.

After coughing dryly, Elizabeth moved away with small steps pretending to be casual, and couldn't help but think to herself that she really shouldn't continue to socialize with Mr. Darcy. The embarrassment she felt in the past half day was more hot than in the past month.

Wickham's paintings attracted most of the attention of this exhibition hall. The two of them easily found the list of patients from the display window. Except for the ones that were locked in the display window a hundred years ago, the others can even be taken away. Come out and read.

A lady's skirt can't hide things, but a gentleman's Flack can, as long as the booklet is hidden in the clothes and tucked under the armpit, it can be taken out safely.

Mr. Darcy obviously had never done such a thing before, and his movements were a little stiff with the booklet in his hands.Although it was the first time for Elizabeth to arrange things, the lady calmly shuffled the booklets on the bottom shelf and arranged them loosely again. At least at a glance, she would not find that two books were missing.

After getting the directory, it was difficult to find out the lady's ward.You can't ask the doctors and receptionists in Bethlehem. If Pastor Martin finds out, she may encounter unexpected accidents in advance.

Elizabeth was about to pretend to be dizzy, ask the waiter for vinegar (Note ③), and took the opportunity to get close to the kitchen in Bethlehem, and bribed the female helpers who were hired to feed and clean the patients to ask questions—the kitchen was near the back, so it was not visited part.Mr. Dawson, Darcy's assistant, also tried to buy off the hired maids, but it was very difficult. Those servants lived in the innermost part of Bethlehem, which he could not reach at all, and he did not have enough time to wait for opportunities.

It seems that God is also helping them. Before the performance, Elizabeth saw a gentleman in the place surrounded by the iron fence. He was reaching in, holding a pair of old and thin hands and weeping. There were fresh wounds, and they all saw red blood.

"Are you all right?" Elizabeth stepped forward and asked softly, handing over the handkerchief, indicating to use it for bandaging.

She saw the old woman inside, hunched over, but her expression was obviously normal.

Elizabeth thought that it was also a normal poor person who was imprisoned, and her suppressed anger suddenly made her flush.

The gentleman who stabbed the old lady's wound in a hurry was not good at talking, but he had a pair of penetrating and sharp eyes.

After a brief conversation, Elizabeth found out that this gentleman was the son of the old woman. The old woman was indeed suffering from insanity. She could live a normal life when she was not ill, but she would go crazy once she was ill.

Elizabeth's little kindness made it easy for them to inquire about the lady's room. Even the old lady who often took care of their maid knew it well.

"My name is William Turner. (Note ④)" The gentleman caught up and introduced himself nervously.

"Elizabeth Bennet." Elizabeth just finished speaking, her eyes suddenly widened, Turner, that Turner!

Mr. Turner thought she knew him, and said shyly, "Yes, I just became a full member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts..."

What Elizabeth knew was not this at all, but a multiple-choice question she had taken in a history class: "The two most famous British painters in the 19th century were Constable and Turner"! (Note ⑤)

Mr. Darcy's jaw was tensed, and while he was uncomfortable holding the register under his arm, another "Mr. William" came unexpectedly.

The author has something to say: With the establishment of a private insane hospital, Lizzie's territory began to expand.

Comment on this chapter to send a hundred small red envelopes~

Note: This data comes from "As late as 1815, according to a report submitted to the (British) House of Commons, Bethlehem Hospital exhibited mental patients every Sunday. This means that there are as many as 6000 visitors per year." - "Madness and Civilization" Chapter 3, author: French philosopher Michel Foucault, published in [-]

Note ②: Bisetel: The Madhouse in Paris, France. It is mentioned in "Madness and Civilization" that "in France, until the Great Revolution, visiting Bicetre and visiting lunatics has always been one of the weekend entertainment items for the bourgeoisie in the bohemian district of Paris."

Note ③: In the 18th and 19th centuries, vinegar was considered to have medicinal effects. At that time, women sometimes felt dizzy, and vinegar could be used to wake her up.

Note ④: William Turner: One of the two outstanding British landscape painters in the 19th century. In late 1799 he was elected an associate member of the Royal Academy; he became a full member in early 1802, becoming the youngest artist to be so honored.

Turner's mother did suffer from insanity: in 1800, Turner's mother was admitted to the Bethlehem Hospital due to insanity. In 1804, Turner's mother died.

Note ⑤: Quoted from "Examination Information Network".