little miss austin

In the afternoon, Henry, who had just got engaged, went to play cricket with his brothers and friends.

Eliza, Cathy, Jane, Alice, Lucy, and several married wives were quietly and elegantly wearing parasols of various styles, and sat aside watching the men sweating.

4 Austin, Tom, and several other young people of the same age who lived nearby were divided into two teams.

Jane explained the rules of cricket to Alice in a low voice.

"Wesley, why don't you go play?" Alice asked Wesley who was standing behind her.

Hearing her question, Jane glanced at Wesley a little funny.

"I'm not very good at playing." He said with a serious expression.

"How can you play well if you don't play more?"

He smiled and said nothing more.

Alice thought he might not want to play with Tom.

Moments later, a batter strikes out.

Jane dropped the parasol and took the bat into the game.

Mom wanted to say, "Jane!" Well-bred girls don't enjoy playing sports with boys.

But fortunately, everyone in the neighbors knew that Jane had played cricket with her brothers since she was a child, and they had already tacitly agreed that she had enough cricket skills, but no one said anything.

Tom didn't even have an opinion.He was the pitcher, and he said loudly, "Be careful you don't get struck out by me!"

Jane clenched the bat tightly, triumphantly, "Let the horse come here!"

In the end, it ended with Tom being eliminated by Jane.

And Tom didn't care at all, and said to Henry with joy, "Before you said that Jane played cricket very well, I thought you were exaggerating."

Henry raised his eyebrows proudly, "There is no need to exaggerate this kind of thing, my three younger sisters are all amazing."

Alice decided that Henry must be the sister-controller.

After the engagement banquet, James returned to Dean Parish, Edward returned to Goldmusham Manor in Kent, and there were two older brothers in the family: Henry and Francis.

Henry often runs to cousin Eliza's house, and only Francis can stay at home.

Alice still went to Gresham Hall three times a week, and at home Francis taught her cricket and French.

Her French is not systematic, and it is still at the level of simple conversation.

Since I just started learning cricket, I can't play it very well. It is a sport that needs to be played more to play well.

Francis has a lively personality, and has traveled to many places with the fleet. He is well-informed, can speak well, and has good social skills. He accompanied Alice to Gresham Manor twice. Mrs. Gresham actually I like him very much.

Alice thought it might be because Francis was only one year older than Wesley, and Mrs. Gresham encouraged Wesley to have a good relationship with Francis.

These two young men of similar age are really two very different types.

They didn't know each other before, and when Wesley moved to Gresham Manor, Francis had already gone to the Naval Academy.The dormitory life in the military academy can make a boy mature as quickly as possible. It is because Wesley did not have the opportunity to hone in the complicated environment of the military academy that he has always maintained the simplicity of a country boy.

There's nothing wrong with that though.

It is actually very rare for a person to maintain a kind nature and a pure heart for a long time.

Francis wasn't bad either, just—obviously a little too smooth, but it was inevitable.As a brother, he is very qualified.

This time he brought back some gold coins, jewelry, and spices. He said that the spices could be kept for his own use, or sold on consignment. His ship had just returned from Asia, and many officers had brought a lot of spices back home.Alice told him that there is no shortage of spices at home now, and also told him how the spices came from, which made Francis very happy, and said, little sister, you are such a little money fanatic.

The ships he served on were warships, and he was often responsible for escorting cargo ships of the East India Company. He described to Alice how much cargo a cargo ship could transport—that was worth tens of thousands of pounds. After returning to China, there would be at least five double the profit, sometimes even 5 times the profit, among which spices are an important item in the goods.

Sometimes after staying overseas for a long time, the allowance cannot be paid in time. The captain will distribute spices as cash, and they can sell the spices at the ports along the way. In many cases, the value of the spices will exceed the allowance they should have received.

Alice exclaimed: "That's a lot of money! I mean, the cargo ship of the East India Company."

"Of course. Many goods are very cheap in India or Malacca, such as raw silk and tea from China, spices from India, gemstones from Burma and Sri Lanka, but they become very expensive when shipped back to England."

"This is inevitable. This is the economic principle. If there is not enough profit, how can a businessman do unprofitable business." Thinking of the gems he mentioned just now, he hurriedly asked: "Did you buy gems?"

"No, gems are still too expensive for me. Besides, if you don't know gems, you can be easily deceived."

This is true.Forget it, don't consider this extremely risky way of making money.

"Do you like gems? But yes, girls really need some decent jewelry. You can ask your mother, if you like the jewelry I brought back, you can take it." Brother is very generous, then But his wife Ben.

Francis didn't know that his mother once regarded Wesley as Jane's possible husband, but he saw that Jane and Tom were probably lovers, so he asked Alice about Tom.

"Then when is he going to propose to Jane?"

"I don't know. Henry said he has no money to get married. If Jane gets married, Dad doesn't have much money for her."

Francis frowned, "This is indeed a very important issue." In this world, you can't do it without money.Marriage especially needs to consider the family background of both parties. It is really difficult to have no money. After all, if you want to marry a girl, you will want to give her the best you can give: a lovely and warm wedding, a house, a Family, you also have to ensure that you can support the children you will have in the future.

There are 6 boys in the family, except for George, who cannot be married, of the other 5 boys, two are married, one is just engaged, and they have no financial problems; there are also two naval officers, as long as they don't mess around, they can save enough to get married. The family's money is not a problem, so what the parents have to worry about now is mainly the three daughters.

Alice is still young, so she is not busy for the time being; Cathy is engaged, so she doesn't need to worry about it; Jane's future needs to be worried urgently.

Frances also knew that Jane was a little unfashionably naive, and that she probably wasn't thinking about money.

Alice said: "The brief is that I have an income. Tom will graduate next year. If he successfully obtains the barrister's license, he will have an income soon. By then, the economy will not be under too much pressure. If Jane With a steady income of £200, they could live together in London."

Francis looked at her in surprise. "That's a good idea—but Dad doesn't have the money."

Alice thought for a while before she said, "Jane is writing a novel, and I think she should get her novel published. Do you know that a poorly written adventure novel can make at least £100! Those people are so much better! She could probably make £200 or more a year just by publishing one novel."

"My God!" Francis exclaimed, "Writing novels is so profitable! This is very suitable for Jane."

Alice agreed, saying somewhat excitedly, "Think about it! My sister will be a famous writer!"

Francis looked at her with a strange expression, "How could you—a well-bred lady wouldn't pursue 'becoming famous'."

She gasped exaggeratedly, "Frank!" Unexpectedly, Francis, like those vulgar men, felt that women should not be "famous".

"What's the matter?" Francis looked innocent, "Jie is married, so what she wants to do is her husband's responsibility. But she is still an unmarried girl. If she writes for interest and hobbies, then there is no The trouble is, money is incidental value, one flower among countless flowers in a spring garden. And if she writes for money, that's a bad thing!"

"Oh, I see." Compared with Henry, Francis, who was younger, had outmoded ideas.This is not surprising, after all, this is the accepted truth of this era.After all, Henry is a highly educated man, and there is a huge gap between the two brothers in terms of level of thought and height.

"Are you unhappy?" He looked at his little sister. "For a 6-year-old girl, you seem to know a little bit more."

He reached out and touched her face lightly with his fingertips, "You think too much, Jane might get married soon, so you don't have to worry about her."

"Shouldn't girls have money?"

"Her money should come from her parents, or her brothers, if they are financially capable."

"From parents is a given, it's an inheritance, but brothers — that's kind of a handout."

Now Francis was surprised, "No, how could it be 'charity'?"

Alice thought for a while, and organized her words, "Like our cousin Anna, she has savings, so she can choose the life she wants, but if she doesn't have those fields and real estate, what will she rely on for a living? Her It's a lady, she can't work, she can't work."

"So isn't that the same thing? A woman should rely on her parents or her husband."

"No! I mean, the life of a woman without money is sad!"

"You're really thinking too much, my sweet little sister. Well, shall we play cricket today?"

Alice said discouragedly: "Play."

It is still impossible for a person, a little girl, to change the world's concept by himself.This era requires women to learn a lot of lady-like courses, so that they can mark a good price in the marriage market, find a valuable husband, and then - have a lot of children!

It seems that the only value of a woman is to have children!

At present, at home, she only got the support of Henry, who didn't know that she wanted to be a publishing house in the end; Pastor George thought she was thinking of Jane, but didn't say anything; Realistically, I feel that it must be a good thing if Jane can make some money by writing. She is the most encouraging, but it is not Alice who encourages, but Jane.

The author has something to say:

*The wiki says that Tom was forced by his family to go back to London. He and Jane had known each other for about a month or two. In his later years, he recalled to a nephew that he had a past with Jane Austen, but he felt that it was " Childlike love".He married quite early, in 1799, at the age of 23. Three years later his uncle Langlois died and he inherited £3.Later, he returned to Ireland, where he became Chief Justice of Ireland and a member of the British Parliament.

*Jane still had feelings for Tom until he got married, and mentioned Tom many times in her letters to her sister Cathy, but she did not mention it to her sister about other suitors. After dying of illness in 1817, Tom traveled from Ireland to England to attend her funeral (as it seemed to mean), or did not attend the funeral in time, but went to the cemetery to pay his respects.Later, at an auction, I bought a rejection letter from the publisher to Pastor George. At that time, Pastor George wanted to send a manuscript of Jane's "First Impressions" (later renamed "Pride and Prejudice") to the publisher. But the publisher declined.