little miss austin

"I don't want to have children one after another like my mother and Elizabeth." Jane turned her face away shyly, "The children are very good and cute, but they are born one after another, my God! I just think about it." Can't take it!"

"Perhaps this is the fate of women." Eliza sighed.She didn't have one after another because poor Earl Fowyd lost his head shortly after little Hastings was born.

"Women should be able to control their own destiny, including how many children to have and when to have children." Jane put Helena down and asked her to find Aunt Alice. Little Helena moved her short legs and shouted "" Aunt Alice", and ran away.

"But it's hard to do, men always feel like they should be in control of everything, including having sex a few times a week—"

The cousins ​​looked at each other and couldn't help laughing.

When Helena found Aunt Alice, Alice was writing a letter to Wesley.

Mrs. Gresham endured for more than three months, and finally died two days ago.

It was hot, and even if it was kept in ice, the body could not be kept for too long. The funeral was scheduled for the day after tomorrow. Wesley hoped that Alice could go back to attend the funeral.

Alice wrote back to confirm that she would go back, and asked him to mourn.The letter was written, sealed, and called for Sidney to be handed over to the footman and sent to the post office.

Cathy, of course, wanted to go back together, but she wrote to her eldest brother James, saying that they would live in the vicarage when they went back.

Eliza was pregnant, so it was inconvenient to run around all the time; Jane had once rejected Wesley's marriage proposal, and it would be somewhat embarrassing to see him again, so she simply didn't go.

Reverend George and Mrs. Austin are in Bath and cannot go back in time, but Reverend James will preside over Mrs. Gresham's funeral. The Austin family has 3 children to attend her funeral, which is enough.

Alice was playing the piano with Helena when Oliver Bundfield came to Austin's house.

The skill of playing the piano can't be said to be very good, but it is enough for self-entertainment; the girl's delicate voice seems to be caressing her heart softly.He only saw her straight back, with thick dark golden brown hair hanging down her back and hanging down to her waist; she had a slender waist, even hidden under a long loose skirt, which was enough to imaginatively imagine.

The soft sweetness of her voice when she spoke, her laugh, her calling Helena's name, calling his name—

Sidney informs Alice that Master Oliver is coming.

She stopped and turned to look at him, "Oliver, how do you know I'm free today?"

"I guess you should be done with your work." He walked behind the piano bench, "Have you finished writing?"

"It's finished."

"Can I take a look?"

"No. I haven't edited it yet. When I am finished, I can allow you to read the first 10 pages."

"Only 10 pages?"

"I can only read 10 pages."

He pretended to sigh, "Okay then."

Helena called him in a childish voice, "Uncle Oliver."

He smiled, "Helena, did you come with mom?"

Helena nodded, "I came with my mother."

"Then—lovely Helena will go and find her mother, will you?"

Helena shook her head, "No, Mom told me to come find Aunt Alice."

Oliver has hit a wall and is a bit dingy.He didn't know that Helena would come today, and he didn't bring any small gifts suitable for children.

Alice looked at him and smiled, and called Sidney, "Sidney, bring Helena to Jane."

"Aunt Alice, I want pudding."

"Well, there will be puddings. Sidney, take some puddings to Mrs. Lefroy."

Sidney took Helena away.

Oliver carefully sat on the piano bench with his back to the piano.

"Whose song are you playing?"

"Bach."

"Bach?" he asked suspiciously.He is confident that he has heard most of Bach's piano pieces, but he doesn't remember the one she played just now.

Alice did not answer him.Continue to play the piano, but no longer sing.

"Alice," Oliver finally said after listening to the piano music for a while, "I want to invite you to a stage play. When are you free?"

The sound of the piano was interrupted briefly.

"What drama?"

"A Midsummer Night's Dream."

"I don't have time these days. Cathy wants to take me back to Steventon."

"When are you coming back?"

"Go one day, stay two days, come back one day."

Oliver calculated the date, "Then I'll buy tickets for the weekend."

"I thought it was time for you to go back to Newton Manor."

"I've grown up." He smiled softly.

"Ok?"

"It means I can stay anywhere I want."

Alice nodded, "You're almost graduating from college."

"Alice, when will you grow up?"

"Grow up when it's time to grow up—" She stopped suddenly, and stood up quickly, "I'm going to pack my bags. Are you going to stay for dinner? Or should you go now."

"I've only just arrived." Oliver couldn't figure out why she suddenly wanted to send him away.If he was in London, he would come over 2 or 3 times a week, that is, this month, she said that she would be very busy and would not let them come to disturb her.

Thinking of not seeing her for another half a year, and that she had grown up a bit, he felt an indescribable joy in his heart—this is very strange, she is actually still a child, at most she can only be called a girl, her body is not yet Fully developed, he should like the kind of beautiful woman with a good figure, a mature woman with breasts and buttocks, full of femininity, not a young girl.

The 5-year-old difference was not so obvious when he was a teenager, and everyone was a child, but after he turned 18, he felt that the gap was a bit big: he was an adult, and she was still a child.

It will take a few more years, when she is 17 or 8 years old, the 5-year-old gap will not be so abrupt again.

Alice left in a hurry, leaving Oliver wondering alone in the living room.

Cathy came over after a while, and seeing Oliver sitting in the living room, she stopped the maid and asked where Alice had gone.The maid looked around and said Miss Alice was in her room.

Cathy exchanged a few words with Oliver. Oliver said that he wanted to invite Alice to watch a stage play. Cathy also said that she would go back to Steventon tomorrow and would not come back until she stayed for a few days.Oliver then said that Alice would be very busy today, so he left, and when they returned to London, he sent a letter to him so that he could book tickets.

Cathy sent Oliver away and went upstairs to find Alice.

Jane was also in Alice's room with Helena, and Alice held the little niece on her lap and gave her water.

"Did Oliver say something wrong today?" Cathy asked.

Jane looked at the little sister.

"No, but it seems to be a mistake."

"What did he say?"

"He asked me when I was going to grow up."

The sisters glanced at each other.Cathy smiled, "Did you ask him what he meant by that?"

"I'm not an idiot, of course what he means is that I'm too young now, he can't fall in love with me—" Serious men and women in this era are very serious about dating, and love that doesn't presuppose marriage is a hooligan and will be cast aside of.Especially for a man like Oliver who is serious in work, good-looking, rich in family and will have a title in the future, if you fall in love with him but reject his marriage proposal in the end, your mother will definitely be furious.It annoyed Alice just thinking about it.

The sisters all laughed, "Then how do you feel about him?"

"If he doesn't want to have a relationship with me, just hang out with me, that's fine. But—if he gets engaged to some lady in the future, we won't be able to hang out like we are now." She was sullen, thinking about growing up. boring!You can play together regardless of gender when you are a teenager. Once someone becomes an adult, the gender difference becomes bigger and bigger.Once a man feels that you have agreed to change from a small partnership to a lovers relationship with him, he will demand monopoly, and she will not be able to associate with other boys.

"It's all like this. But you are still young, so don't worry about falling in love." Jane touched her head.

She muttered, "I'm not in a hurry to fall in love, it's so boring to fall in love! The joy of love is short-lived, and then there are endless troubles-like Oliver, Julian is jealous of him, and the baron follows the heir's request. Strictly demanding Oliver, but obviously doting on Julian, his family's property alone will be enough trouble in the future; the baron is still very young, and he may marry a young wife in a few years, I can't bear to call someone like me. A woman of about the same age is called 'mother'."

Jane hugged her and laughed loudly, "Yes, yes, yes! You are so thoughtful!"

"This is a very likely problem, okay!"

Jane glanced at Cathy with a smile.

"Besides, I'm very busy now. I have endless books, endless writing projects, piano practice, painting, and needlework. I can't keep busy. I'm so busy!"

When the sisters left Alice's room, Cathy said: "It seems that she really doesn't like Oliver, I mean, the kind of liking between men and women."

"She's young, so she doesn't need to worry about it now. Oliver is also young, and he can wait a few years before thinking about it."

Cathy agrees: "She's just like Lucy, and when Lucy was fifteen she was—" She smiled: Lucy had been in love with Tom Lefroy when she was fifteen.

"Lucy was a little precocious, but still kind of stupid." Jane barely remembered it.

"Alice is precocious too, but not as precociously as Lucy. Oh, yes, did you hear? Lucy is about to have her second child."

"No one told me that," said Jane, somewhat sentimentally. "Lucy seldom wrote to me." She was married to Tom Lefroy, and she was related to Lucy's family.Lucy's mother, Mrs. Anne Lefroy, unfortunately fell off a horse when she was out riding a horse at the end of last year. She was crushed by a horse and broke her ribs.Jane was very sad.After the Lefroy family moved to Ash, they soon got in close contact with the Austin family in Steventon. Jane loved Mrs. Lefroy very much, and there were many letters after her marriage.

Lucy is 25 years old this year, married at 22, and her husband is a not-too-distant relative of Mrs. Lefroy's natal family.Lucy restrained her frivolous and impetuous temper, and became a standard good wife and mother.There's nothing wrong with her temperament, it's just the longing of an ordinary girl for love. When she sees a beautiful boy, she will feel that she likes him. In fact, she is very timid and has never done anything to elope.

Jane and Tom would sometimes talk about their audacity, and if they had eloped and had their wedding privately, they might be living lonely in some small town in Ireland now, and Tom was drunk all day long, and Jane complained about him. Did not earn money for meals.In the end, both of them would lament how stupid they were when they were young, but that kind of impulsiveness was commendable.

There was still love, and it would have been better if Tom hadn't been so anxious about the heir.

Alice went out with Cathy the next day.They left early, and Ivo Gordon came at eight o'clock to have breakfast with Alice, only to find that she was not at home.

Ivo was very annoyed.

The servant asked him if he wanted to stay for breakfast, he said no, he walked out quickly, ordered someone to bring his horse, and rode off at a gallop.

Lady Gresham is buried in the Gresham family cemetery, alongside her late husband, surrounded by dead ancestors.

Pastor James presided over the funeral for Mrs. Gresham, and ashes returned to ashes. After the pastor finished the funeral speech, Wesley put the white rose in his hand on the coffin lid and said something silently.

Workers put the coffin into the grave with ropes, and Wesley grabbed a handful of soil and sprinkled it on the coffin lid.

The funeral ceremony was very brief, and no family members spoke or anything. The pastor finished the prayer.

The funeral guests left one after another, and Wesley was still standing by the tomb, looking at the coffin in the tomb with regret.

Reverend James patted him on the shoulder.

"Mr. Wesley."

Wesley glanced at Alice in a blink of an eye, "Alice." He looked gloomy, and seemed to have returned to his original appearance.

"Thank you for coming to my aunt's funeral." He was dressed in all black.

"This is what I should do."

"You said, why do people die?"

"Is this... what God meant?"

"Mortal is mortal, I understand, but it's hard to bear when the people closest to you are gone. My mother died very early, and Lady Gresham was like a mother to me. Alice , the person who loves me the most in this world is gone—" He covered his eyes sadly.

"Everyone's life is different, but death will be the end of everyone. One day, you, and I, will face death. Death is not terrible, anyway, after you die, it will be another world, you I will remember nothing and feel no pain."

"You said, is there really a world after death?"

"Maybe."

He said softly: "Then I am willing to let her soul go to heaven."

Alice stayed in Steventon for an extra day, and went to Gresham Manor the day before she left.

It seems that nothing has changed in the manor. The pond in front of the mansion is still planted with water lilies. Several different kinds of water lilies are blooming and full of beautiful water lilies.

"What are you going to do in the future? Will you live here in the future?" Alice looked at the pond full of water lilies, and remembered when she painted water lilies here a few years ago.

"Stay here for a while, and then think about the future."

"Do you like to do things? You never seem to say."

"You know that I don't need to do any specific work." Wesley's spirit was better than that of the funeral, "But you also know that if I stay in the manor and only think about how to play and how to spend all day, I haven't learned that kind of thing, so I might go to London for a few months and really think about developing a career."

"You should write down your experience of traveling abroad in the past few years." Alice suggested.Wesley also studied literature at Oxford University, but writing is about talent. Wesley's talent in literary creation is average, that is, he can explain things clearly.He wrote letters in a very organized way, which was very different from William's style of writing where he thought of, and he was suitable as a recorder.

"I'll think about it. What about you? What are you going to do in the future?" He stayed at Gresham Manor most of the time after he returned to England, and hadn't seen Alice a few times.

"Write a novel every year, so that when I'm old, I can proudly declare that I'm also a great writer." Alice raised her face.

"——I'm really ashamed, you... and Jane knew what they wanted to do since they were young, and they were very assertive about the future, but I—" He sighed, "Now I finally know why Jane rejected me."

Tom Lefroy also had a career plan for himself very early, so it is normal for Jane to like Tom.

Alice really wanted to say "No, Jane is just looking at the face".Well, it's true that she couldn't guess what Jane thought at the time, but if she didn't like him, she didn't like him, and Jane wouldn't like him no matter what he became.

"Alice!" Someone began to call her name from a distance, it was Grant Temple returning from riding a horse.

Wesley frowned.

I don't know why this brat insisted on coming to Gresham with his brother-in-law and sister. Is it true that Grant likes Alice, as William Kingsley said?So he knew that Alice would come to Gresham, so he followed?The Kingsleys took Grant and made an appointment with the Austin sisters to set off together tomorrow morning and return to London.

Grant didn't rein in the horse until the two were around. Looking at Alice, he said with a smile, "Alice, do you want to ride a horse?" He held out his hand to her, "I can take you to ride a horse together."

He was a well-grown boy, tall, good-looking, with a lovely smile, thin, tall, well-educated, but sometimes not very polite.

Grant has lived in England for half a year, and his accent has changed a bit, but he still leaks out the southern American accent from time to time, and the locals in England can quickly tell that he is not a native.

"No." Alice refused.

Grant quickly got off his horse, and then greeted Wesley, "Mr. Wesley."

Wesley also nodded to him.

"I'll take you home later." Grant said graciously.

"I came with my sister, why should you send it?"

"It's a matter of etiquette. You used to live in Steventon, didn't you? I want to see where you grew up."

"There's not much to see in the country."

Grant whispered, "You're so stingy, I just want to know more about you, can't I?"

Wesley couldn't help frowning again.

Alice ignored his rhetorical question, pointed to the water lilies in the pool and said, "I want to take some water lilies home, and you can dig some for me."

"Ah? How to dig?" Grant was stunned.

"Ask the gardener."

When the Austin sisters left in the carriage, Grant was rowing a boat in the pool and directing the gardener to dig water lilies.

He looked up and saw the carriage of Austin's family, and shouted anxiously: "Why didn't you wait for me to leave!" He stood up, the boat swayed from side to side, he couldn't stand firmly, and plunged into the pool.

Alice smiled happily when she saw him fall into the pool through the car window.

"Naughty! You don't want water lilies at all, why did you trick him into digging water lilies for you?"

"He's idle anyway, find something for him to do."

Sally didn't know that her younger brother fell into the pool to dig water lilies for Alice. She thought it was because he was playful, and blamed him for being unsteady like a child. How could her mother rest assured that he would go to Oxford to go to university alone.

Although William didn't know the specifics, he was smart enough to figure it out—a boy as old as Grant was past the age to play in the pool, so he was probably trying to please Alice.

Neither he nor Wesley thought that Alice would like Grant. Wesley considered it from the perspective of family background. Temple's family was an upstart from a small village in Buckinghamshire. Baron, Alice herself is not short of money, unless the Temple family can compare with the property of the Beckford family, otherwise the Austin family will not consider Grant;

William said, Alice is a girl with foresight. From the current point of view, Grant is not a star and a half away from Alice. She will not like a boy who has no lofty goals. Besides, she is still very young. Grant's unrequited love For her, she probably didn't care at all.

None of the Austin sisters took Grant's fall into the pool to heart.

On the way back, they rested at the post station halfway. William got out of the carriage first, and went to help Cathy and Alice get off.Grant helped his sister Sally out of the car.

The road outside the post station is covered with horse manure. It is hot and the horses eat soybean dregs, peanut dregs and green grass. The horse dung that is pure grass has no strong smell, but when it is added with soybean dregs and peanut dregs, the smell of horse dung is a bit Indescribable.Alice wrinkled her little nose and covered her nose and mouth with a handkerchief.

If there is any inconvenience in traveling in this era, the biggest problem is that the speed is too slow, and the second problem is horse manure.

Not to mention that the staff at the post station did not have the habit and awareness of cleaning up horse manure in a timely manner, even the streets of London are also very bad. Where there are many carriages, there will always be horse manure problems.William said that even in Paris, the most prosperous city in Europe, there is still a problem of horse manure on the streets. There are idlers who specially lay wooden boards on the sections of the street where there is a lot of horse manure for pedestrians to walk on. Of course, there is a fee. Collect dozens of francs!

There is another problem that is difficult to talk about but extremely important, that is, the problem of going to the toilet.

It’s good to say that the post station has toilets, but it’s impossible to have toilets everywhere on the roadside, so if you walk a long way and haven’t reached the next post station, you have to face this major problem.

So, how to solve this serious problem?It's better for men, just stop the carriage and find a tree at random. Women can't be natural, and they need servants at this time.The servants surrounded a place with tents, so that the ladies could solve practical problems gracefully.

The servant laid wooden boards under the carriage, and Alice got out of the carriage with William's arm, and stepped on the wooden boards to the steps in front of the inn.

In the restaurant attached to the inn, William and Grant each ordered a glass of beer, while Cathy, Alice, and Sally drank the rose water they brought.The food was ordered casually. It was hot, and the food in the station restaurant would not be very delicious, and there was not much for a few people to eat.

Grant whispered to Alice that he drank very good beer in London, and he would take her to taste it when he returned to London; and asked her if she liked the water lilies he sent that day.Alice took the water lilies, but left them at James' house in Steventon, and did not take them away.

"Oh! I also saw the water lilies you painted in Gresham before! They are beautiful! William said that your technique is not very good, but your use of color is very good. I like it very much. However," he glanced quietly. William, "Mr. Wesley refused to give it to me, obviously there are several."

Alice remembered that she did draw a lot of water lilies back then, some of which were brought home, and some were placed in Gresham Manor. She did not expect Wesley to find those paintings.

"I can draw portraits of people now, why don't you come to my house some other day and I will draw a portrait for you."

Grant cheered up immediately, "That's good! I'll go find you tomorrow."

"Not tomorrow, I have to rest at home."

"What about the weekend?"

"Oliver invited me and Cathy to a play on the weekend."

Grant's face suddenly darkened, "Then you have to agree to my invitation, I also want to invite you to a stage play, or - let's go to a circus performance."

"What are you talking about? I agreed to Oliver, so I have to agree to your invitation too?"

"Then why did you agree to go out with him, but not with me?"

Alice didn't want to talk anymore, "I've finished eating." She stood up, "I'm going out first."

Grant looked puzzled, "You just ate a little—"

Sally raised her forehead: This younger brother is really stupid!

Cathy told Sidney, who was eating at another table, to follow Alice. Jacob stopped eating, rinsed his mouth in a hurry, and followed.

Alice wandered around in the shop next to the post station, bought some apricots, and asked Sidney to wash them.

Jacob asked, "Aren't you full?"

"I'm not full. I don't want to eat anything."

"Mrs. Austen asked me to bring some raisin bread, which you have always loved, in case you get hungry on the way."

"Okay, give it to me later." Thinking about what the stinky kid Grant said, he was still very angry.But she would not quarrel with people, she could only walk away.

Cute boys become less cute once they get jealous.

Back in London, Grant didn't see Alice for several days. He was so depressed that he asked William: "Is Alice angry that day?" He couldn't figure it out, "Why was she angry? Did I say something wrong?" ?”

"You don't know what you said wrong?" William exclaimed, "Why do you compare with Oliver? They have known each other since childhood. Even if Oliver is not the heir to the baron, he is still a very good boy. The relationship between him and Alice Friendship, do you think it can be compared with you who have only known her for half a year?"

"I've known her for 8 months!" Grant said unconvinced: "It's not determined by the length of time. But—" he was distressed, "Alice is not the same as other 15-year-old girls I know. Same, she—"

He lowered his head, "I like her, I hate that Oliver, I hate Ivo Gordon, I hate all the boys who know her, including men, as long as they are not named Austin."

"Come on, don't think so much, I think, you know too few cute girls, how about this, before we leave, I will hold a dance for you, and only invite beautiful and lovely unmarried girls, what do you think? "He and Sally were supposed to go on their honeymoon, but they postponed because they were going to attend the funeral in Gresham.

Grant shrugged, "I don't care."

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" is an interesting stage play, Shakespeare's works. There are theaters in London's West End all year round.

Oliver booked a better box. The box can’t be too close to the stage. The first box has a bad view, but it can’t be too far away. It’s hard to get the best box facing the stage, so we’ll settle for the next best box , book the box next to it.

There were four people in the box: Alice, Cathy, Oliver, and Sidney; Sidney sat behind Alice, and Oliver's valet stood by the door.

They have all read Shakespeare's original works, and they have nothing difficult to understand about the plot, and they don't talk much.

During the intermission, someone came to say hello to Oliver. He left the box, talked to people in the corridor, and rolled a cigarette by the way.If there are any "benefits" to a college life, it is that well-behaved children learn a lot of new things to eat, drink, and play. Before they officially enter the world of adults, college is a small world that tests all students.

You have to be restrained to control the desire to spend money.

Oliver was about the same as William, with pocket money of 1000 pounds a year, not including tuition, accommodation, and books; Julian also had pocket money of 1000 pounds a year, and Baron Bondfield would not treat him differently in this regard. 1000 pounds is already considered a huge sum of money. When Brother Henry was studying in Oxford, he only had 50 pounds a year at most.

The whole summer is spent in various games.

Oliver, Ivo, Byron, and Grant all came to Austin's house often, and sometimes the boys met together, but they all maintained a superficial peace.

After Alice revises the new book, she shows Oliver the first 5 chapters. Oliver praises her without showing any signs and asks when she plans to publish it.The advantage of having a publishing house at home is that she can publish whenever she wants.

"I think the writing is not good enough in some places," Alice hesitated, "I want to revise it at least once, and modify some illogical places."

"I haven't read the following chapters. If you don't mind, can I read the full text?"

"No, if you read it now and wait until it's published, it won't be fresh."

"I promise that I will read it carefully from beginning to end when the time comes."

"You can't take too much at a time. I only have one manuscript and no backup." At this time, I can't help but hate the era of handwriting. Even the revisions were done directly on the manuscript paper, so that paintings were added to the entire manuscript, and the handwriting was very difficult to read.

He said that there was no backup, but he still typed a new copy. After typing 100 pages, he sent the 100-page manuscript to Oliver.

The name of this novel is "The Gaze of the Abyss", which is expanded from a short story in "England Horror Stories", adding characters, places, and stories. The main line is a 12-year-old girl, and there are two sub-lines, one One is the girl's parents, one is another pair of young lovers.

The story begins with an ordinary morning.

Margaret, a 12-year-old girl, woke up in pain after a small, unexplained fire broke out in her bedroom. All the furniture and walls, ceilings, floors, burned her hair, and the pain she felt was because her hair was burned;

Margaret cried and went to her parents, only to find her parents hugging each other, dead in the garden;

Then came the funeral of her parents and the relatives who adopted her; on the way the relatives picked her up, another unexplained fire broke out in the carriage, and the relatives and couple were burned to death, but Margaret was still safe and sound.

This is where the story begins.

Margaret received two inheritances left by her parents and relatives, and the judge temporarily appointed a distant cousin as her guardian, but Margaret did not follow her original plan to join her guardian.

She can no longer stay in her hometown, because people think she is "unknown" and a person with a natural disaster. Some people even dug up the medieval "witch" legend and insisted that she used witchcraft to kill her parents and relatives. .Because of superstition and fear, the villagers came to Margaret's house on a windy night and wanted to kill her;

Margaret tried to escape, nearly escaped, but managed to escape; after she left the house, those who would have killed her were swept up in the air by a gust of wind, and then dismantled. It fell into pieces.

Thus, Margaret's status as a witch was further confirmed.

Then there is Margaret's escape journey, which is accompanied by various incredible events. Where she walked, either people died or a large number of livestock died. People were afraid of her, but they dared not really hurt her.

Oliver read the first 100 pages overnight.I fell asleep the next morning.After getting up in the afternoon, I put away the manuscript paper and hurried to Austin's house.

"Your writing is great!" Oliver praised her sincerely for 10 minutes, which made Alice bursting with confidence and flattered. "I can't wait to read the next story, or I won't be able to sleep well."

"But I haven't finished playing again."

The author has something to say:

*If Oliver refers to Asa, Ivo refers to Holland.