[Comprehensive Book] A Rose for Catherine

Lydia didn't make this move out of passion.

When she was talking to Mrs. Gardiner about the fashions in London, she heard her mention this Mr. Leonard, who did all kinds of trades, especially Oriental spices, ivory, porcelain, etc., for the ladies and gentlemen. However, there are very few pieces that come from the ports in the southwest of England that do not pass through the hands of Mr. Leonard.He also sold some expensive fabrics that were not in fashion, and he did a very good business in London.

Lydia thought, isn't this the one sent by God to help her?No matter what, he is very rich. If he is rich, he can afford her design draft, and she can get a lot of pounds.

So she made a decision without even thinking about it——recommend her design draft to this gentleman, and insist on asking him to applaud her own design.

Catherine finally found a way to control her expression. She hesitated for a while, but she still didn't go to Lydia's side. Instead, she found Mr. Gardner and whispered a few words to him, while secretly paying attention to Lydia and Len. Nader's speech.The others also heard Lydia's words, their faces were full of surprise, and they looked at each other for a while, not knowing what to say, but instead gave Lydia and Leonard a chance to talk.

Leonard thought that the youngest lady had some unruly thoughts about him, and when she took out the manuscript, he only felt that she had found another way to deliberately attract his attention, and planned to just take a perfunctory look at the lady's design draft He just said goodbye, but he glanced at Lydia's design draft from the corner of his eye, unconsciously put away the contempt in his heart, and his eyes were focused and serious.

Seeing his serious expression, Lydia couldn't help but lose a little bit of her excitement and became nervous.She squeezed her fingers, worried whether her design draft could satisfy the gentleman.She could lower the price a little if he wasn't satisfied.

She thought a lot in a mess, and finally heard Leonard ponder and say: "Miss Lydia, are these works all from your hands?"

Lydia raised her head proudly: "Of course."

Leonard nodded: "Your design is very good, and the price you proposed is also very fair. If there is no problem, we can sign a contract now."

"Ah! Of course..." Lydia couldn't wait to agree, but was grabbed by the wrist by Catherine who came over. She turned her head and whispered: "Kitty, what are you doing?"

It was the first pound she was going to earn for herself!

Catherine gave her a look, and then smiled dignifiedly and gracefully at Leonard: "Mr. Leonard, thank you very much for your appreciation of my sister, I also think her talent is worthy of your appreciation, but once the design becomes sellable Commodities, we'd better be more cautious. Neither Lydia nor I know anything about business, so I think it should be handed over to a more professional person to discuss this matter with you."

Leonard asked back unhurriedly: "Miss Kitty, this is just your idea, it may not be Miss Lydia's idea, right?"

Lydia immediately looked at Catherine: "I listen to Kitty!"

Leonard hesitated for a while, and had no choice but to ask again: "Then Miss Kitty, what kind of professional do you want to entrust to talk to me?"

"Oh. You don't have to worry about this." Catherine replied in his tone, "I have just entrusted your loyal partner, our uncle Mr. Gardner, to discuss this business with you."

Leonard: "..."

Mr. Gardner came over as soon as he heard his name, and said with a smile: "Mr. Leonard."

Leonard twitched the corners of his mouth with a half-smile, and sat at a table with Mr. Gardner to negotiate.Although it wasn't a big deal, for the sake of his two nieces, Mr. Gardner still negotiated seriously with Leonard.

Catherine accompanied Lydia to explain the whole thing to her two sisters and Aunt Gardner.Aunt Gardner felt that it was better for her niece to be self-reliant than to do nothing, but she couldn't laugh or cry at Lydia's recklessness.

Jane and Elizabeth were completely surprised.The Bennet family belonged to the squire class, and the material life provided to their five daughters was considered superior when the annual salary of a maid was only a few tens of pounds, and the pocket money was even more abundant. Their daily life was nothing more than needlework, socializing at dance parties, and reading. For one thing, they have never thought of earning money by themselves. Who told a lady to go out to earn money these days and make people feel that the family is not decent?

After being surprised, Elizabeth immediately agreed with Lydia. It's better for her to draw design drafts than rush around at the ball.Jane has a gentle temperament and is extremely tolerant to her younger sisters. As the eldest sister, she thinks more: "Then shall we tell Mom and Dad?"

"Of course, I'll buy them presents when I get the money!" Lydia happily planned what to do with the money.

Catherine reminded her helplessly: "Lydia, don't you save a little?"

Lydia stared wide-eyed, then shook her head, and whispered to Catherine: "No, I want to use part of the money to do business... so we can get more money."

Merchant was not a respectable job for gentlemen with large lands, so Lydia only whispered this to Catherine. ①

"Well... that's fine too."

Catherine listened to Lydia's thoughts, pondered for a while, and glanced in Leonard's direction, a thought sprouted in her heart.

Over there, Mr. Gardner and Leonard have finished talking. Mr. Gardner is obviously more knowledgeable than Lydia and Catherine, so he called the price to [-] pounds per design draft.Lydia provided more than a dozen design drafts this time, which cost several hundred pounds in conversion.

Lydia murmured in disbelief upon hearing the price: "Kitty, I feel like a dream."

Mr. Gardner said with a smile: "Lydia, this price is very fair. But if your design drafts make them not easily imitated, the price will be even higher!"

Lydia gave Mr. Gardner a hug excitedly, "Thank you, Uncle!"

Catherine: "Then we can discuss some details now."

"Please." Leonard smiled politely, followed Mr. Gardner into the study, and the two ladies also walked in side by side.

Mr. Gardner is a good hand at signing the contract, and he doesn't want to let the two nieces suffer a little bit, and Leonard doesn't want to think too much: "With all due respect, although Miss Lydia's design draft is wonderful, it is not It is unique and cannot be copied, if I don’t buy these manuscripts today, I can still ask people to make clothes of this style.”

"You scoundrel!" Lydia blushed immediately and reprimanded loudly.Leonard was unmoved, and even smiled slightly at Lydia.

Lydia was even angrier.

Catherine patted her hand reassuringly, with a calm voice: "Of course, you can do this, and there is nothing we can do to stop it, but I don't think you will do it."

"Oh? Miss Kitty thinks I'm a virtuous man?"

"No, I thought you would be more willing to cooperate with us for a long time. There is an old saying in the East called 'kill the chicken and get the egg'. You are a smart person, otherwise you wouldn't be able to do business as it is now. You must understand what I want to say."

Leonard restrained his sloppy smile: "I was just joking, sorry for scaring Miss Lydia, I am a reputable businessman, please rest assured Miss Lydia."

Lydia snorted softly, feeling that this person was so bad that she didn't want to talk to him.She must sue Jane and Aunt Gardner later to keep them away from this guy.

"We trust uncle's vision, Mr. Gardner, and Lydia and I will naturally trust your reputation."

Catherine said calmly.

Leonard: "Then we can draw up a preliminary contract without any problems?"

"One more thing." Catherine pulled Lydia, "We hope to exchange part of the remuneration for investment in this business. Lydia attaches great importance to her design drafts, and naturally hopes that this business can develop. It’s better. It’s also more conducive to our long-term cooperation, don’t you think?”

She emphasized the word "long-term cooperation".

Leonard glanced at Lydia, who was still a little stunned, and smiled politely: "Of course, then I will pay Miss Lydia [-]% of the profits from the design draft, and at the same time, Miss Lydia needs to provide long-term stability to I will provide a new design manuscript. If Miss Lydia's design fails to gain interest, then she will not get a penny."

This is another kind of cooperation.

Catherine looked at Lydia and waited for her to make a final decision. Lydia frowned and hesitated: "Then I can't get any money now? I still want to buy you gifts?"

Leonard laughed, and couldn't help feeling secretly that the nieces of Mr. Gardner really had their own characteristics.

"I can advance two hundred pounds to Miss Lydia."

Now that they have decided to cooperate for a long time, Leonard's attitude is much more sincere than before, and he is even more pleasant to Lydia, without any initial boredom.

Lydia glanced at Catherine first to make sure there was no trap, and then thanked Catherine vigilantly.

Leonard didn't change his face, pretending not to notice Lydia's vigilance: "Then can we talk about the details of the contract now?"

This is the field where Mr. Gardner is good at. He easily solved this trouble for his niece, and finally won more benefits for Lydia - from 11.00% to [-]%.

Lydia still doesn't know what the [-]% interest means in the future. It was already past nine o'clock after finalizing the details of the contract, and the sky was dark. She grabbed a pen and wrote her name on the contract casually, and again Mr. Gardner thanked him, yawned, and went to bed.

Mr. Leonard stayed at Mr. Gardner's house.The place where he lived was a bit far from here. It was not safe to drive back so late in a carriage and the road was slippery. Mr. Gardner politely invited him to stay overnight.

Catherine left Mr. Gardner's study almost side by side with him.

Leonard wanted to find out about this young lady, so he took the initiative to say, "Miss Lydia is really a talented lady."

Catherine responded with a smile: "Of course, Lydia is very smart and beautiful."

"Yes, you are not bad, you are even smarter."

"Thank you for the compliment, it's a pleasure to say that."

Catherine's reply was so tight that Leonard couldn't find out. Fortunately, she took the initiative to raise the topic so that Mr. Leonard would not be too embarrassed.

"May I ask, how do you plan to sell these designs of Lydia? If it's just tailor-made, it may be difficult to achieve the benefits you promised at the beginning, right?"

After all, if this is the case, a design draft can only be used once, and there will be many "pirated copies". At this time, design copyright is not very important.And Leonard easily promised such a huge profit, which proves that he has other ways to use Lydia's design draft to obtain greater benefits.

Leonard smiled, and then said a few words.

The author has something to say: [Written here temporarily, there is still some information to check for the rest of the content, and put it in the next chapter.Then on the 6th, the book will be on the clip, so the update on the 6th will be postponed, so don't wait.It is updated normally at other times. 】

①: At that time, most British people believed that landlords belonged to the upper class of society, big businessmen and professionals belonged to the middle class, and manual laborers belonged to the lower class of society.Therefore, the landlord and gentry class will think that it is not decent to be in business.In the original text, Caroline looked down on an uncle in the Bennet family who was a businessman.

The Bennet family belonged to the class of landowners and squires. Their family was not poor, and it was also a family with high annual income at that time. The only problem with their family was that they did not have a biological male heir.