The Happy Life of a Duchess

Jenny was so excited that she seemed to be speaking incoherently, and some words were used upside down.

A few words in her newly learned Parisian accent were mixed with those in her original mother tongue, and Mary frowned when she heard it. She hesitated for a long time between holding back and interrupting, and finally she Still choose, handed over a glass of water.

"Speak slowly." Although Mary is short-tempered and prone to overthinking, she is not bad in nature. At least after confirming that Jenny and her have no core conflict of interest, her tolerance for her suddenly increased a lot.

"Put the letter down." Seeing that she seemed to have forgotten the letter while holding the letter, she had to take the initiative to get the letter, and then handed it to Adele. Adele started to open the letter while motioning for Jenny to continue. She believed that Cousin Marianne would explain it to her.

"That is to say, don't those British people want to come over and do business with us?" Jenny actually just listened to it, and the details in the middle are not very clear, but this does not prevent her from being happy about this fact.

"And then?" Mary was also curious.

"There are several kinds of business they want to do. One is the gold business that the lady mentioned before, but this business cannot skip the king and the parliament. That is to say, they not only have to go through the formalities and guarantee their qualifications, but also need After obtaining the consent of the parliament and the king, we can then negotiate with our bankers, gold mine owners or the king about his gold property. In this process, many government officials are required to participate, that is, those who manage money have to control politics Economy and so on..."

"Why do they want to do the gold business?" Mary asked the key point, she really didn't understand, "Although gold is a good thing, but..."

"Actually, I don't quite understand why they want..." Jenny scratched her head, "Do they want to buy our gold bricks?"

"..." Adele was still reading Mariana's letter. Naturally, it was impossible for her to know such details. Hearing the questions from the two of them, she thought along her train of thought and opened her mouth guessing.

"Because they want gold." Adele seemed to have a clue in light of the current British situation.

"They have already implemented the bill and implemented the gold standard system. The demand for gold has increased. Apart from what can be obtained from overseas territories, the fastest way to get it is through commercial trade. Buy it from us or other countries, or As long as you ask us to provide gold as payment when you trade, that's fine too."

"Their products are the most famous now. The cost of things made by machines is low, and the quantity and quality should be better than manual ones. In this way, they can sell them to us in large quantities at a relatively low price, and then we buy them with gold..."

Adele thought about it, and felt that this was more and more possible.

"Maybe there is something big I want to do, but it is impossible for us to know the reason. Even if I ask my father, he may not be able to tell me, so we just listen."

"That's right, there's no need to bother Mr. Duke about it." Mary nodded in agreement. She just took this matter as an embellishment of gossip. In fact, she was not interested in what kind of business they were going to do. These were their men. We should worry.

Adele could almost guess what she was thinking from the look of disapproval on her face, and she didn't say anything, but continued to explain based on Mariana's letter.

"In short, it is because their currency system is very different from ours. We have gold and silver in circulation in the market. If any gold or silver is missing, it will have an impact on our money. Therefore, after discussion, the Minister of Finance Adopting the suggestion and rejecting the suggestion to cooperate with them is probably for some purpose of protecting the order of our French financial market."

"Anyway, this matter has been a bit of a grind. The bill was raised and rejected, and the House of Representatives met to discuss it. Different parties will have different considerations. Even within the cabinet, there are many voices. There are many in favor, against, and neutral. Many of them want to fish in troubled waters. Yes, in short, those financiers and bankers may be the most worried. Those who live on the land like us have a big influence but will not jump for a bill that has no shadow. Of course they need to worry about it, but it seems that there is still a period distance."

Both of them half-understood. Seeing this, Adele stopped talking about this topic.

She herself doesn't understand very well, and she wants to discuss or ask, but there is no such suitable person to understand the information. Most people may not understand better than her, but those who know may not be willing to tell her, so she has no choice but to Suppress the messy thoughts.

"Anyway, these British people came here. The biggest purpose is this. Arrange for a duke to come over. There may be a prince who will come to talk later. But right now, most of them have failed, and the remaining small business and small transactions can only exist in some individuals. There is a business family in the family."

"This little profit is really nothing compared to this useless big head, and the baron who offended by his words," Adele paused, but still couldn't help showing a smile, "Everyone doesn't like it." Would like to do business with him."

"That's great!"

Jenny didn't think about it so much, she just felt happy.

Mary thought about it and thought it was a good thing, so she laughed.

Adele pressed for a while, but finally laughed out loud.

She didn't know if the rumors about her were fueled by this person, but in the end he was the source of damage to her reputation.

Although he cannot be blamed for the remaining responsibilities, he himself has his own problems. Since he wants to do business, he should be more sincere, and if he can't control his mouth, he has to bear the feedback of this evil force.

The Duke's Mansion and several others are still investigating the source of the rumors, and there are some traces pointing to that Miss Desi.

Adele has a deep understanding of her brainlessness, but what makes her feel strange is that the wind direction has changed now, and some of them are helping her to build a good reputation, and the influence of the Duke will not spread again. In addition, the source of the problem was that the business of the British people was temporarily put on hold due to the needs of the country's economy. Under such circumstances, which were obviously more beneficial to her, she was surprised to find that there was no dissatisfaction with this Miss Ada Desi. Good voice comes out.

She really didn't do anything to her, although sooner or later she would definitely slap back this "slap" at the Desi lady, it was just a matter of timing.

However, as far as she knows, no one in the Desi family has the influence to suppress bad voices about Miss Ida Desi, otherwise there would not be some mixed in the reputation of the two Miss Desi The voice of the eldest sister Ada Desi was vaguely degraded by the praise of Dana Desi.

It is precisely because of this that Adele boldly guessed that the relationship between the two siblings should not be as friendly as imagined. It is even possible that Dana is stepping on her sister to gain her reputation, and whether it is because of Ada The character is still due to other reasons. From the point of view of means, she can't play with her plastic sister, but the strange thing is——

Everyone can see that this is an opportunity for Dana. Dana can take this opportunity to suppress her sister's reputation again, step down her elder sister before Easter, and even use her to stand on Adele's side. Bian used this as an excuse to give himself a reputation of patriotism and friendliness to foreigners.

and many more……

Adele frowned slightly, she seemed to have found something wrong, but there was no evidence at the moment, the news was mixed with true and false, and since Adele did not go to the prom again to learn about the current popular gossip, she was not completely sure I believe all the information given by my cousin, and Marianna's letters are not without emphasis and bias, if they are not objective enough, they may make mistakes.

It was beyond Adele's expectation that Dana didn't seize this opportunity to make a move.

She didn't think that the two sisters had such a strong family view of honor and disgrace. For Dana, this was not a time when humility could make up for the impact on her before and after birth.

But no matter what, she kept this matter in her heart for the time being.

Adele's good mood really lasted for a long time, the most obvious manifestation is that she took more walks out of the room.

Perhaps this was partly because she could stay at home and write letters with Miss Duval and other friends, without the troublesome society of a ball.

Sometimes, early in the morning, she would go to the garden to cut the flower branches herself, and then hold a large bouquet of dewy flowers and put two or three vases, one in the Duke's father's study, and one in her second floor. In the bedroom, there is another place that falls in the living room, and sometimes a bouquet of blooming flowers is placed in the place where the afternoon tea is drunk.

The previous things did not leave traces in her heart, but before she figured it out and figured out a solution, it was inappropriate to trap herself in bad emotions.

It was as if she hadn't thought of a suitable enough solution to deal with the possible future love affair between Marguerite and Armand, but it was very unfortunate.

On the one hand, she knew that she should not have more contact with Margaret according to the current etiquette, but on the other hand, her modern thinking told her that this matter was unreasonable, and it was one-sided to judge the present by a person's past , especially Margaret is still not picking up guests everywhere.

Although the reputation of courtesans is not good, it is not as bad as it is today. A large part of this is because of the "exclusion of women who are also courtesans" in the past and the jealousy of some women, which spreads some even worse. Great reputation.

Even the theater actors, men and women, there are quite a few who receive customers on the surface and secretly, and there are also many women who only focus on being one person's extramarital lover, but they are not all in a "difficult" situation like Margaret.

Of course, what Adele knows better is that when she and Armand are together in the future, life will be more difficult. Compared with it now, it is really much better.

Before untying these messy knots, Adele can only act with her heart and try her best to find a solution that can balance the two sides.

She was just groping for a better way to settle down for herself in this strange era.

"Miss, do you want to go to the garden today?"

Early in the morning, Jenny helped Adele change into a lighter dress, and started to help her braid her hair again.

Her hands are not as good as Mary's, but Mary's red, swollen and itchy skin in the past two days has reached the "critical period of treatment" in the doctor's mouth. Most of the time, there are ointments on the back of her hands and arms, which smell very strong and sticky. Generally only come to serve Adele in the late afternoon and evening.

Jenny then took over most of the work during the day. She always felt like she had forgotten something, but after she asked Adele and got a nod in response, the words she came to her mouth suddenly ran away by herself. She paused there, thinking Sorry for what I originally wanted to say.

"What's wrong?" Adele asked.

"Don't move!" Jenny became nervous in an instant. With the shaking of her head, a strand of hair that was finally parted to one side was about to be mixed with the other strand. She managed to use all ten fingers to braid the hair quickly. It's over, but I can't bear the despair again.

"Okay, okay." Adele laughed and let her fiddle with it.

Unless the pain was severe, she would not say a word to affect the nervous Jenny. Even if she shaved a few hairs off her, Adele just smiled helplessly and punished her to eat a small snack.

Jenny is already nervous, and she is not yet an adult. Adele doesn't want her overly strict and sensitive attitude to leave her with a psychological shadow on braiding her hair and dressing her up.

The view of the garden before us was as pleasant as ever.

The spring is getting stronger, and the appearance of the colorful flowers makes people feel more and more lively and prosperous, and the fragrance in the air permeates the heart little by little.

Adele walked towards the flowers while taking a walk.

Today she wanted to find some pink flowers to put up. Whether it was roses, roses, or ordinary small flowers, as long as the density was right, they would be cute and beautiful together.

She was in a good mood, and soon there was a large bouquet of flowers in her bosom.

At this time, she has always disliked being followed, isn't it fun to walk alone and pick flowers?

Between "Brother Jacques" and "Marseillaise", she thought about it and chose nursery rhymes carefully.

I don't know how long she sang a tune over and over again, until a sudden light cough interrupted her happy jumping.

Adele's mind went blank for a moment.

The author has something to say:

About the Gold Standard:

Newton first proposed the gold standard system.The first country to implement the gold coin standard was the United Kingdom. In 1816, the United Kingdom passed the "Gold Standard System Act", which legally recognized gold as the currency standard to issue banknotes. In 1821, the United Kingdom officially launched the gold standard system, and the British pound became the standard currency unit of the United Kingdom. Every pound contains ? 1 grams of pure gold.

1803年法国实行金银复本位制，规定1法郎含金量为0.2903225克，含银量为4.5克。但由于金银比价在19世纪后期不断跳动，导致金银复本位制度的崩溃。1876年实行金本位制。

By the late 19th century, the gold coin standard had been widely adopted in capitalist countries, and it had become international.Due to the prominent position of the United Kingdom in the world economic system at that time, it was actually an international gold standard system centered on the British pound and based on gold.This international gold standard system lasted for about 30 years, and it disintegrated when the First World War broke out.In the heyday of the gold standard system, gold was the most important international reserve asset of various countries, and the British pound was the most important means of settlement in the world. Gold and British pound became the recognized international reserves of all countries.

(The above information comes from the Internet. The gold standard is actually another crop of leeks. I won’t go into details. The author is a non-professional, please let the financial bosses let go of the small ones. get to the bottom)

Brother Jacques: "Two Tigers", French Folk Song

Marseillaise: French National Anthem

Adele: Who overheard me singing? ! (bushi)