little miss austin

The more anxious the mother was, the more depressed Cathy became. She wrote to Jane, complaining that her mother was obsessed with marrying her. What would she do in the future if she didn't get married now?No husband, no children, no company, how lonely it is when you are old!

Jane didn't know how to comfort Cathy, so she had to write back, saying that mother is so busy, and she still has time to talk about you, maybe she is not busy enough, or let mother take care of Alice?

Alice is also very busy, busy packing her own things. Most of the clothes and skirts have to be taken to Daylesford, Gloucestershire. The suitcases are to be sorted too, to see what is to be taken to Daylesford.

Over the years, she collected a lot of messy things, and she was reluctant to throw them away. Most of the treasures were collected and sent to the warehouse, and some jewelry was taken away, including the pearl necklace and the hairpin given by Wesley.She now has a lot of valuable jewelry, and she can be regarded as a rich girl.

There was also the previous money bag, which contained the rewards Wesley gave her. She had already used up the change, and now the money bag was full of 1 pound coins.

She emptied the purse and counted it: fifty-six.

Thinking that a few years ago, she was still worrying about not knowing when she would earn 1000 pounds. Now, she has earned far more than 1000 pounds. All this only took 4 years.

oops!How time flies so fast!

The 5-year plan has been carried out very smoothly, which has greatly boosted her confidence and is full of confidence in the future.

As for the move, it can be said that she was responsible for it alone. She didn't have much nostalgia for the Steventon vicarage, but she was looking forward to the new home.If the brothers and sisters in the family were in a bad mood, she would definitely not be able to take out her own money to build a house so decisively. I am afraid that she will have to fight for the real estate in the future.Fortunately, Austin’s family was well educated. Pastor George taught his sons to be very kind. Brothers and friends are respectful, and the daughter-in-law is also kind, lovely and well-educated. She is not a mean and petty woman.

So this is "it's not that the family does not enter the family". A woman may be blind. If she marries an unreliable man, a man can basically see a woman's true face clearly, and it is rare for her to be blind.

My mother also felt that Alice was a bit out of line when she wanted to study with Mr. Hastings, but she had no problem with studying with Mrs. Baker. Girls should receive a lady’s education, as long as they learn to memorize mathematics. Accounting is fine, politics, economy, history and military are things that only boys need to learn, girls don't need to learn.What is the use of learning?Can you be a general?Can you be governor?

Alice strongly disagreed, saying that if I hadn't heard about the typewriter and asked Tom to go to the patent office to search through the files, get the patent, and start a company, how could our family have the money to buy land and build a house?This is the case in the world, if you know how to think more and earn more, any knowledge is useful, and knowledge itself does not distinguish between men and women, it just depends on how to use it.

My mother said that a woman only needs to take care of her own family. Learning too much is useless and wasteful.

Alice was surprised, and said that England and Scotland have produced great queens who ruled the country and inherited the past and the future, making Britain step by step to the prosperity and strength it is today. The leader, that's why the world misunderstands that women can only stay at home.It’s also because men know that when a woman is in charge — political power or economic power — men have nothing to do.

Mom said she was talking nonsense.I am also worried about who my little daughter learned this kind of nonsense from. If this trend continues, no one will be able to stand her way, and it will be difficult to find a suitable husband in the future. It wasn't that he was about to run away in fright.

My mother wanted Alice to learn from the virtuous Joan of Arc and become an excellent lady, a perfect bride-to-be.

In the busy last week of June, Henry came to pick up Alice and send her to Daylesford.

Facing great changes at home, Henry has finally made up his mind to retire from the militia, and has already rented a house in London. This time, he will send Alice to Mr. Hastings' house, and he will also pick up little Hastings and take him to the London, with his mother.

Alice looked at her brother worriedly. After Henry got married, the pressure increased greatly, and the hairline he saw had receded a little, which was really bad.She thought to herself, it's better not to get married. If Henry is not married, her mother will just nagging Henry about what kind of wife he wants to find. Once married, her mother will only think about giving birth all day long.This is stressful for men!Brother Henry was so worried that he was bald, and he was no longer the happy and handsome young man he used to be.

"What's wrong? Looking at me like that?" Henry received her worried eyes.

"Mom said that since you and Eliza have no children, she shouldn't have agreed to your marriage in the first place."

Henry was a little embarrassed, "Good boy, this is not something you should worry about."

The mother didn't believe that it was her son's problem, so she wished to think that Eliza was old and her fertility had declined, so she couldn't give Henry an heir.If Henry was still a small officer with an allowance of 4 pounds, then it would be fine, but now Henry has an income of several thousand pounds a year, and will save tens of thousands of pounds in the future, but he has no heirs, what should I do? ?

"How about adopting one from Edward's family? Little Henry is very good. I heard that after someone adopted a child, he suddenly gave birth to his own child."

Henry was a little moved, "Where did you read this story?"

"A lot of people say that. You know those wives and wives, they always like to talk about this kind of thing, who has a baby, whose husband has an illegitimate child outside, who's child is not the boy of this family The master's own child. They are talking very vigorously."

Henry raised his forehead, "You shouldn't have listened to that."

"They always forget that I'm around." Alice grimaced. "They are very concerned about the fertility of men and women."

Henry smiled shortly: that's what he's worried about. He and Eliza have attracted much attention because of the age difference. Of course, people pay more attention to Eliza's belly, and they are keen to discuss who is "no".Although Eliza gave birth to a child, she is 39 years old after all. In this era, even if she is middle-aged, she may have lost her fertility.People always blame women for the unfavorable factors, and Eliza is also under a lot of pressure. She loves Henry. She has received traditional lady education and believes that an important responsibility of women is to have children. Of course, she hopes to give him a child.

Henry always comforted her, don't worry, my mother gave birth to Alice at the age of 50, age is not a problem.

"This is something for adults, you don't have to think about it all the time."

"Henry, you are my brother, of course I will think about you. You should have an heir anyway?"

"I can leave everything I have to Hastings."

Alice has nothing to say: stepson is also a son, you can't narrowly say that stepson is not an heir, right?To Reverend Henry and George, Hastings, being Eliza's son, was somewhat related to them, and thought it was all right to be heir, but Mother didn't think so.Even adopting a nephew from Edward's brother's house would be better than little Hastings.

Hastings Floyd, standing on the steps of Daylesford House, watched the carriage pull up, smiling.

An Indian manservant with a bald head quickly walked down the steps, opened the door of the carriage, pulled down the folding ladder, and bowed back.

Henry got out of the carriage first, then turned around and helped Alice down.

Little Hastings came down the steps. "Hello, Father."

Alice, who had just got off the carriage, laughed "puchi".

Little Hastings didn't know what she was laughing at, but thought she looked pretty. "Hello, Aunt Alice."

"Hello, nephew," she replied primly.Little Hastings was reluctant to call her "Auntie" in the past. He probably thought that she would be "Auntie" when she was young.

"Is Mr. Hastings at home?" Henry asked the butler.

"At home, Mr. Austin. Sir is in the living room."

Henry nodded, turned to Alice and said, "Let's go see Mr. Hastings first."

The butler at the side was asking the servants and maids to take down the luggage. Alice will be staying for four years, so she has brought almost all the things she needs, including a carriage for luggage.

Alice heard the housekeeper calling "Jacob" and looked back, "Jacob?" It was the playmate that the housekeeper found for her at Cousin Anna's house that year. Jacob was older than her. 4 years old, 14 years old this year, still half a child.

Little Hastings also looked back, "You left that year, and Jacob also returned to his home. Later, he came here by himself and asked the housekeeper if he could come here as a servant."

"So he's been working here as a servant? But isn't he too young?" Isn't this child labor?

"It's okay, my grandfather asked him to play with me, but he's pretty stupid, I don't like him." Little Hastings frowned, "Don't talk about him, let's go see my grandfather soon."

"Is your name Mr. Hastings 'grandfather'?"

"Yes."

Little Hastings was three and a half years older than Alice, born in June 3 and just turned 1786 this month.

The 14-year-old boy is already very tall, a full head taller than Alice. He has grown up, and his eyebrows and eyes have grown.Much like his mother, he is a handsome boy.

Earlier, he had attended classes with Reverend George for half a year, and stayed with Alice for several months, but Alice went to London once and was seriously ill. Went to Pastor George's classroom for class.After that, Alice went to school in London again, and the two children saw each other very rarely.

So when they saw each other this time, both of them had a bright feeling.

It seemed to Hastings that she had suddenly grown up, grown into a big girl, and became—pretty, ladylike.

Alice also felt that Hastings was much more mature than when he met him in Daylesford when he was almost 10 years old. That's right, it's been 4 years, and he should grow up no matter what.

The voice has changed a bit, it is no longer a child-like voice, and the voice is slightly thicker, but it has not yet reached the period of voice change.He asked them where they rested halfway, whether they were tired after walking for a few days.They stayed as little as possible among them, only stopping for dinner after noon, and stopping for the night, but because there were not many post stations, the horses needed to be stopped to rest, so they arrived on the third day.If you can change the stage horse in the middle, and you don’t need to bring a lot of luggage, you can start at 5 or 6 in the morning and arrive that night.

Warren Hastings is 67 years old this year. His appearance seems to have not changed much from a few years ago. His hair and eyebrows are white and bald. He has a thin body from young to old. His eyes are small but very God, with thin lips, gives the impression that he is harsh and difficult to get along with.Considering that he was once in charge of a large number of British overseas colonies, it is understandable that he might not be convincing if he has a pleasant appearance.

In fact, I was still very kind. The butler led the Austin brothers and sisters into the living room, and he stood up, "Welcome, my young guests."

The Austin siblings saluted respectfully, "Hello, Mr. Hastings."

"Henry. Alice. Alice, come here and let me see you."

Alice approached him, "Sir."

"Look! You've grown up!" said Mr. Hastings gratifiedly. "You've become a little lady."

Alice smiled, "Thank you for the teacher you recommended, Sir, Mrs. Baker is a very good teacher, she taught me as much as possible."

The old man smiled amiably, "Mrs. Becker likes you very much too. Come on, let Mrs. Bloom take you to your room." He rang the bell on a low table beside him, and the housekeeper quickly came in and took away Alice.

Alice's room was on the second floor. It was a three-room suite with a bedroom, a living room and a bathroom. The servants had brought her luggage up and put them on the living room floor.Two maids stood in the living room. Mrs. Bloom pointed to one of the maids and said, "This is Merry, your personal maid. She will do everything you need." Then she pointed to another maid, "Millie is in charge of cleaning your room."

Alice nodded.

"The family schedule is breakfast at 9 am, dinner at 6 pm, and you can ask the kitchen to make some snacks at noon. Sir goes to bed at 9 pm, and Earl Floyd goes to bed at 9 pm."

"Understood. I will give Lily a menu later and ask her to hand it over to—are you still the cook?"

"Leave it to me." Mrs. Bloom saluted her and said goodbye. "Miss Austin."

The housekeeper left.

It is comfortable to have maids to do things. Alice directed the two maids to open her suitcase, and put away her clothes, skirts, gloves, scarves and hats; books, notebooks, and typewriters should be in their respective places; Box, find one. Meili went to the storage room for several hours, and found a wooden box with complicated and exotic patterns on the lid. She asked the servant to carry it up and put it next to Alice's bed.

Dinner at 6 o'clock is with Mr. Hastings, Little Hastings, Henry, Mr. Hastings is old, has bad teeth, and likes stewed food, Little Hastings Very picky eaters, Alice is also picky eaters, only Henry has a good appetite and can eat anything.

The mansion will become very dark at night, because there is no water supply system, it is a bit troublesome to take a shower, but the trouble will never be the owner.

There are exquisite sinks, toilets with seats, and bathtubs in the bathroom. The servants use a small elevator to transport the hot and cold water buckets upstairs, and the washed water is poured from the drain pipe to the sewer under the house.

Candlesticks can only be used for lighting. Compared with saving at home, now Alice can light at least 4 candlesticks at a time, so that the bathroom will be very bright. In the middle, Mi Li will add hot water for her according to her instructions. She can soak for as long as she wants.

After taking a comfortable bath, it was almost time for bedtime.

Alice came out of the bathtub, and Meili wrapped her in a towel, dried her body, and put on her nightgown; she gently dried her hair, and then put on a light silk pajamas.

In the living room, Meili asked her if she wanted some fruit, so she ate some apples and pineapples, rinsed her mouth with light salt water, went into the bedroom, and went to bed.

It was more comfortable than life at Mrs. Becker's, more comfortable than Cousin Anna's.Sure enough, it is the enjoyment of the rich, so it is really difficult to change from extravagance to frugality. When you are used to the service of servants, and then think about the days when you have to do everything yourself, I am afraid it will not be easy.

Alice lay on the big soft bed.

The bed is also very gorgeous, an old-fashioned four-poster bed, this kind of bed can be pulled up to form a small room by itself.There are two layers of curtains, made of French imitation silk and jacquard satin; there are several grids of different sizes at the head of the bed, in which you can put some private things, letters or jewelry, and even some snacks. If you are hungry in the middle of the night, You can sneak a little.

There are wall lamps on the walls, with candles stuck in them, covered with glass lampshades, emitting a slightly dim light.Before Meili asked if she wanted to extinguish the candle, Alice said no, so she lit it.

After lying down for a while, she got out of bed again, put on her leather slippers, walked to the window, and opened it.It's hot in summer, and the windows are half opened for ventilation.

The moonlight shone faintly on the ground. There were no trees around the Daylesford House, and the nearest trees were all 400 yards away. The shadows of the trees under the moonlight were a bit gloomy.The wind blows and the shadows of the trees shake.

She looked at the tree shadows in the distance for a while, and felt that it was still a bit cold to blow the wind by the window, so she went back to the bed, lay down, and soon fell asleep.

Early the next morning, Merry came to wake her up at 7 o'clock, and Mr. Hastings invited Alice to go out for a walk with him.

Alice got up and washed, changed into a home skirt, and asked Meili if she had anything to eat now, she was hungry.Merry said the cook had boiled some quail eggs, and she could eat a few.So Alice wrapped a dozen quail eggs in a cotton handkerchief.

Eating quail eggs while walking was not exactly ladylike manners, but Mr. Hastings said nothing about her.

Alice peeled a quail egg, quickly stuffed it into her mouth, and chewed with her small mouth.Ladies should not make noise when they eat, they have to chew with their mouths closed. If they eat with their mouth open, they will make noise, which is considered indecent.The easiest way to judge whether a person has been well-bred is to see if he can make a sound when he eats.

If it doesn't rain or snow, Mr. Hastings will walk about 4 miles every morning to another nearby village and back again.On the way, he pointed to Alice's church in Daylesford, which used to be the family church of the Hastings family. It was later sold together with the House of Daylesford, and now he bought it back together.When he bought it back, the church was already very dilapidated, and he spent a sum of money to renovate the church.

Alice walked back and forth with him, finished eating the quail eggs, and drank half a jug of water, so that she could hardly eat anything for breakfast at 9 o'clock, so she had to eat some cherry tomatoes, a piece of bread, and a piece of bacon casually.

Little Hastings teased her for eating too early, but then reassured her that there was always something to eat in the kitchen, snack or dessert, and she would never be hungry.

Alice didn't attend class these days, and Little Hastings took her to familiarize herself with the surrounding environment. It had been four years since she came last time, and she needed to get familiarized again.

They rode wildly all afternoon, Henry worried about them and went with them.Alice wore men's trousers under her skirt, nondescript, but it was better than wearing only women's drawers, which were also very indecent.

Henry stayed at Daylesford House for three days, then took his leave, taking little Hastings with him.

Little Hastings bid farewell to Alice very reluctantly.

"I just saw you, and I have to go again. When will you come to London?"

"Of course I'll go when I have time," Alice replied with a smile, "I'm definitely going to visit Henry and Eliza."

"Well, if you want to come, write to me in advance, and I will pick you up."

"it is good."

Little Hastings was satisfied, "Then I have to go. By the way, don't play with Jacob, he is an ignorant country boy, and he is no longer suitable to be your playmate."

Alice frowned, ignoring this sentence.

She hasn't seen Jacob in the past few days. Jacob is just a small servant who neither works in the kitchen nor serves her, so there is basically no chance to meet him.They only saw each other briefly on the day Alice arrived, and Jacob had grown up, a solid, simple country boy like any other country boy.

Alice actually doesn’t remember much about her playmates when she was a child. After all, it has been several years. Children’s memory is limited. They always have to make room for other new things, and they don’t specifically remember a person many years ago. playmate.Alice just didn't expect that Jacob would be willing to be a servant.It is hard to say that a manservant will have a better future than a farmer, but he may earn a little more.