little miss austin

"What's so good about that guy? Can he compare to Oliver?"

"I thought you hated Oliver."

"But he's my brother."

——Understood, he is very jealous of his brother, but it is the kind of jealousy of a child.

"Your father should teach you what brotherhood is."

"Then don't bother you." Julian pouted, "Look at my brother, he doesn't know how to find our cousin to stop Ivo. What's so good about Ivo? Is it because he has more sisters?"

"You used to—were you and Ivo not good friends?" Ivo was dragged to speak, unable to walk away, but his eyes kept looking this way.

"Friends are one thing, brothers are another." Julian took two glasses of wine from the tray the servant was carrying and handed her one. "Speaking of which, haven't you been playing with Oliver all the time? Don't you prefer the idiot to the smarter and better-looking one?"

Alice smiled, "I should tell Oliver that you actually care about him."

"That's right, it's not!"

Ivo was finally able to come over, "Julian." While greeting his young playmate, he quietly blocked Alice behind him.

It wasn't until they left the ball and got into the carriage that Ivo asked, "What did Julian tell you?"

"Nothing to say."

He looked skeptical: "He is not such a talkative guy."

"What else can he say? He said it. If I'm happy, I'll listen to it. If I'm not, I'll treat him as a barking dog."

Susan, who was sitting opposite, laughed "puchi".

William Beckford smiled and did not correct her words.In many small details, Beckford is rather casual.

"That's good." Ivo breathed a sigh of relief: he was really worried that Julian would suddenly like her too.Speaking of which, when Alice was playing with them, Oliver would never take Julian with him, because Alice always hated Julian and thought he was inexplicable.

The next day, Baron Bundfield suddenly came to visit the Gordons with his two sons.

Arrived very early, before breakfast at Gordon's.

Alice was walking in the garden outside with Susan and Miss Gordon when Brothers Oliver and Julian came.

The brothers saluted the ladies, and the girls curtseyed back.

Oliver then said: "Miss Beckford, I would like to have a few words alone with Miss Austin."

Susan immediately looked at Alice and nodded after getting her approval.

None of the Miss Gordons wanted to go.Oliver is his younger brother's rival in love, so he can't be given a chance to meet Alice alone.

Julian immediately met the Miss Gordons and stopped them.

Oliver walked forward with her in silence for a while, "Alice, last night—I didn't have a chance to talk to you last night."

"You're so good-tempered, haven't you learned to refuse yet?"

"For the ladies, it may not be easy to say no." Of course he knew what Miss Gordon meant last night, and the few sisters in the family are sometimes really a godsend.

"What do you want to say to me?"

"Well...Alice, we have known each other for 6 years. You were only 10 years old when you first arrived in Daylesford."

"Sixteen and a half."

He smiled, "You are 16 and a half years old now. In fact, I originally wanted to wait until you were 17 or 18 to tell you this. You may think that I am too gentle. Before... when we played together, I always let you, Ivo, George, it's not because I don't know what 'competitiveness' is, but because I have everything, I don't have to fight for a game. Yes For boys, no, for men, winning or losing is very important, but not everything is important. However, I may be thinking too much about things and forgetting to consider your wishes."

He stopped, stared at the garden plants not far away for ten seconds, then turned to look at her, "You chose Ivo, and I was going crazy with jealousy. He has always been a lucky guy, you used to I like him better, you sometimes don't want to come out to play without Ivo, so I have to call Ivo every time, but at that time, I thought you just like a boy who can hang out with you .And love, love or marriage, that's different."

"Ivo is not just a playmate, he is very good." After thinking about it, he saved it, "You are also very good, but you are really different from Ivo."

"What's the difference? I know you don't care about money or title, so what do you care about?"

"It's—that kind of feeling. Ivo can make me happy."

Oliver finally showed surprise now, "It's that simple?"

"Life is very tiring, and it is more important to be happy. I don't lack anything, and if I have money, I have social status. The Austin family has made some money in the past few years, which is enough for me to live any life I want. I You won’t force yourself for money or title.”

"I will not force you with money or title." Oliver said hastily.

"I know you won't. Your problem is that you are too gentle. This is not a shortcoming, but you should learn to be selfish. Your nature is so good that you don't look like an heir to a nobleman. Most of the time, you are very good. You Suitable—” She paused, “Cathy said you are suitable to be a husband, if I want to get married, you may be the most suitable person for me. But me, I may not get married.”

Oliver was confused, "What do you mean? You don't want to get married? Or do you not want to marry Ivo?"

"It has nothing to do with anyone else, I just don't want to get married. Do you know how much money I make a year now?"

"A conservative estimate, 1000 to 2000 pounds, and there will be more in the future."

"Yes. You see, you, Ivo, George, and even Julian, you will not work in the future, and you will not need to make money yourself. The biggest business decision you can make is whether you should continue to buy land and real estate. You and I am different, I want to make money by myself, and I can also use the skills I have learned to make money, think about it, am I suitable for marriage?"

"You want to make money yourself, there is no conflict with whether you want to get married or not."

"Or should I say this, I have my own thoughts, you—you don't want me to be a good wife and mother at home, besides, after marriage, women have no property rights of their own, but they can keep property rights if they are unmarried, so why should I What about getting married? And if I don't want to get married, and you have a title that needs to be passed on to your son, how can I be suitable for you?"

Oliver's three views were hit precisely. For the first time, he knew that she thought so.

This era is full of unmarried women throughout their lives. Women with low education have the highest marriage rate because they have no money and can only marry for survival; women who are rich like Susan or whose father and brother have titles also have a high marriage rate , because of family pressure, they all hope that they can marry a man of the right family; on the contrary, Alice, a senior gentry class, has the most single women, and their reasons for not getting married are different. It is because the brothers are greedy and hold on to the dowries of the sisters.

And like Alice, her brothers are all rich, well-educated, and her siblings are friendly. She herself is not short of money, but she actively wants to choose not to marry. In fact, it is still very rare.

"You are still too young. You think so now because of Cathy's influence on you." After thinking for a while, he said: "If you really don't choose anyone, I'm not so sad. But you now ...You obviously chose Ivo, but you actually said that you won't get married. Did you say the same thing to Ivo?"

"said."

"Is he not confused by you? Is he not angry?"

"He may not have understood what I really mean. Do you understand?"

"I understand, it's not difficult to understand." This is indeed a new big problem.He found that the problem was unsolvable. "Then you mean that you won't accept my courtship, don't you?"

"will not."

"But you can't always maintain the current state with Ivo. He will definitely propose to you. If you reject him, don't you think that he will be hurt?"

"Then can you?"

"——I can't." He was very painful, "I want to marry you, I am familiar with your character, your temper, what you like to eat, what you don't like to eat; I know what you like to play, you I can accompany you wherever you want to play, wherever you want, you can go to Europe or America, if you like the Far East, I can also accompany you. You can live wherever you want, You want to write novels all your life, and I absolutely support it. But I must marry you, otherwise, if you are free, you will definitely leave, and it doesn’t even matter whether I understand you enough. Liaison, you haven't left home until now because firstly you are too young, and secondly, your parents are still alive."

Now it was Alice who was surprised: among other things, he was indeed right about the last point.

Pastor George is getting old, and his health is getting worse year after year. No matter how much he recuperates, his energy will be exhausted. He will die at some point. She doesn't want to be far away when he passes away, and she won't be able to come back to see him for the last time. .

So it can be seen that Oliver really understands her very well, which is much better than Ivo.

"Stop talking about that."

"I'm here to talk to you about this today. If you can give me hope, I can wait for you and break up with Ivo when you get tired of him."

"Is there a difference? I won't agree to Ivo's marriage proposal, and I certainly won't agree to yours."

"I have hope. I hope you will change your mind when you are a few years older."

"I've already thought about it. Marriage is boring, especially boring, love is enough. I just want to be happy, I just want to be happy. If anything makes me unhappy, I will give it up."

Oliver took a deep breath, "You are only 16 and a half years old, if you still have the same idea when you are 26 and a half years old, then I will admit my failure, and I will consider finding a girl of similar background to marry me, if I have a daughter, and I will name her Alice."

He held her left hand, lowered his head and kissed the ring on her finger, "I love you, my blue-eyed little oriole. My love for you has no limit, but my waiting has a limit."

Ivo wanted to know what Oliver had said to her, but Alice didn't say a word to him.

Doubtful, scratching his lungs, and returning to Oxford with doubts.

Beckford, his daughter and Alice finally set off again, first to the west, to Cardiff in Wales, then north, from Birmingham to Liverpool, Manchester, across the ruins of the ancient Roman Great Wall, to Glasgow in Scotland, to visit After leaving the University of Glasgow, I originally wanted to go further north to Aberdeen, but it was the end of October and the weather was getting colder and colder. Neither Susan nor Alice wanted to go further north.

So I turned back from Glasgow, walked from the east and the center, passed through Sheffield, Coventry, and passed Cambridge.

Cambridge University is similar to Oxford University in that it expands around the university teaching buildings, dormitory buildings, and libraries.The number of students is increasing day by day, and there are all kinds of facilities, such as small hotels, pubs and other places that focus on playing.

In a certain tavern, George Byron was drunk and was talking loudly with some young men.When men huddled together, especially when they were drunk, the discussions were basically all about women.

Ladies can't joke about it, it would be frivolous, but women who are mistresses for a living can joke around.They talked about a certain woman who lived in such-and-such a cabin, discussed her breasts and thighs vulgarly, winked vaguely, and laughed when they talked about it.

But suddenly, the tavern became quiet, and everyone was looking at the door.

A girl wearing a men's woolen coat appeared at the door, taking off the long cloak trimmed with fox fur, and handing it to the tall man beside her.He quickly took off the men's leather gloves, and put on a pair of milky white lambskin gloves, and casually took the riding whip from the servant behind him.

She has long, thick brown hair, braided back from the sideburns, revealing a beautiful white face.

Wearing a men's V-neck sweater under the woolen coat, white shirt collar frills, wearing the latest London trousers, tweed fabric, with a pair of short boots, not the traditional breeches, stockings and leather boots collocation.

It can be said that the clothes are very trendy, and because she is a girl, and she is also a beautiful girl, she is very eye-catching. The tavern seemed to be frozen for a while, no one spoke or drank, and all looked at her.

She is well-dressed, and her posture is naturally well-educated. She is a lady, but I don't know why the lady came to the tavern?There are women in the tavern, but they are all "that kind of" women, and the gap between them and ladies can be said to be very different.

The tavern was not big, so she walked around, quickly found the target, and walked straight over.

George Byron was drunk, but not so drunk that he could not see her face clearly.

He has been in a daze since he saw her, "Alice? Why are you here?"

Alice quickly took a look at the people around Byron: none of them were very old, most of them were men, and there were a few escorting women, who looked very vulgar.

She wondered: How could Byron tolerate hanging out with these people?

"Ivo said you were drunk all day, so I came to see you."

"Why - did you come to see me specially?" Byron was a little confused.Ivo actually wrote to him during the summer vacation that Alice was traveling around England, but he always thought she had returned to London long ago.

"I'm passing by." The manservant had already chased away the woman next to Byron, took out a handkerchief and wiped the chairs again before asking her to sit down. "Haven't you finished your drink yet? I was afraid you wouldn't be able to walk, so I specially called George to come with me." George was the servant of the Beckford family.

Byron squinted at her, smelling heavily of alcohol, Alice had to cover her nose with a handkerchief, and said disgustedly: "You stink, if you don't drink, we'll leave here."

He leaned his head on her shoulder, "Have you brought any money? I owe some wine money."

Alice pushed him away in disgust, "Go away! Don't think that you can be unruly when you're drunk." Turning to Jacob, she said, "Go and pay Master George's bill, all within 300 pounds, More than 300 pounds will be half."

The drinking buddies sent the other women away.

Someone asked her if she wanted a drink, and she shook her head: I don't like the beer or whiskey in this kind of tavern.

Jacob came back after a while and said that the drink cost was more than 100 pounds, but less than 200 pounds, and it had been settled.

More than 100 pounds of wine is enough to drown Byron in it, and it is enough to drown 100 Byrons, so either he is drunk all day long, or he is taking advantage of it and often pays for his drinking buddies.This is just a tavern, and maybe other taverns have their bills.

Alice was not going to help him settle all the foreign debts, so she stood up immediately and asked the servant George to pick up Byron and take him back to the dormitory.

As soon as he stepped out of the tavern, Byron vomited all over the floor.

Alice quickly walked away a few steps, covering her nose, "You are terrible!" and said to Jacob: "Go to the tavern and ask for a glass of white water, and rinse his mouth."

Byron leaned on the pillar of the tavern porch, smiled drunkenly, "Where's Ivo?"

"Isn't he in Oxford? It's a strange question."

"Oh! Yes! I forgot! You have a riding whip. Did you come on horseback?"

"No, the whip is used to whip people. If you are dishonest, I will whip you with the whip."

Byron laughed, "Like when you smoked Evan?"

"Yes, just like whipping Evan back then." She flicked the horsewhip, and the horsewhip waved in the cold air, making a slight whistle.

"Alice, you are so beautiful today."

"I've always been beautiful, okay?" She rolled her eyes angrily.

Jacob came out with plain water, and Byron rinsed his mouth and drank the remaining half glass of water before saying, "I'm much better, let's go back quickly, it's too cold outside."

"Where's your cloak?"

"Sold."

What a loser!

"Are you poor enough to sell clothes?"

"Maybe it was given away, who remembers so much?" Byron waved his hand indifferently.

He lives in a whole small dormitory building by himself, the bedroom is upstairs, and the living room downstairs is messy.

"Where's your servant? Why don't you clean up your room?"

"I don't know where he went, ah, this damn bastard! Is he being lazy again!"

Alice wanted to roll her eyes again: the master doesn't look good, and the servant will definitely not take the master seriously, so maybe he will take the master's money and go out to spend a lot of time.

"You go to bed. George will stay tonight," said the servant George with a startled face. "Don't go out to drink tomorrow. Mr. William Beckford and I are staying at the King's Hotel. Come and have breakfast with us early tomorrow morning."

She tapped Byron's face with the end of her whip, "Did you hear that?"

"Know it."

"George, wake him up at six o'clock in the morning, and if he won't get up, pour a glass of cold water on his face." He ordered the manservant again.

Early the next morning, George Byron appeared in the dining room of the King's Hotel in good spirits.

Alice asks Jacob to tip the servant George 5 shillings and dismiss the servant.

Byron saluted Mr. Beckford respectfully, and then saluted Susan and Alice.

After eating breakfast properly, Byron accompanied the three of them wandering around the campus of Cambridge University for more than an hour.Beckford had little interest in Cambridge University, and felt that university education could only teach mediocre talents, that truly intelligent people did not need to study in university, and that real geniuses were rare, so they could not waste time in university.

Byron improvised a poem about Alice's visit to him in the tavern last night.Beckford said that he had a little talent in poetry, but he had to drink less alcohol, and told him the benefits of absinthe, one glass is worth eight.

Alice said that he drank too much, ranging from alcoholic liver to severe alcoholic kidney.

Susan asked what is "alcoholic liver".

Alice replied: "If you soak a piece of pork or beef in wine for ten days, the piece of meat can be lit as a candle. What's more, you drink all day long? People who drink too much will lose their internal organs. Lose."

Susan thinks it makes sense, but experiments may be needed to prove it.What is "alcoholic kidney"?

Beckford interrupted their conversation, saying that he didn't need to know too much.

Although Byron doesn't know what an "alcoholic kidney" is, he knows how much alcohol can hurt his health from his father. His father is called "Mad Jack". He is 35 years old if he has money to drink but not money to eat. died of tuberculosis.

He asked Alice quietly if she didn't like his drinking.He was disgusted again: "If you drink too much wine, you will vomit, it stinks to death."

He was a little embarrassing, after all, it was too shameless to drink too much and vomit in front of a lady!

Although, Alice and him are less than two years old, and they played together for so long when they were teenagers. She has seen him in all kinds of embarrassments, but she has never seen him drunk.No matter how free and easy he is, such uneducated things are not suitable for his friends to see.

Then he whispered: "Then I won't drink alcohol in the future, but I may not be able to quit all at once. In short, I will drink less."

"Don't drink too much absinthe, either."

"Okay." Speaking of absinthe, a necessity for literary young men, he has already drank it.Absinthe also pays attention to quality. Good absinthe is indeed very good. It can quickly reach the point where people are ecstatic, and it is not over the top, so there will be no too sad hangover.

The author has something to say:

*Absinthe is the kind of wine that turns green that Rimbaud and Verlaine drink in "Total Eclipse of Love". Absinthe is said to have hallucinogenic effects, so it was very popular among literary youth circles in the 19th century.

*Modern trousers have become popular in the early 19th century, which is the kind of trousers that reach to the ankle, but the popularity range is not too wide, and fashionable people wear them.