little miss austin

"No. If you want to whip him with a horsewhip, don't do it. I'll whip him for you." He moved to her side and held her hand. "Don't think about him, the person you should think about most now is me."

"I can see you every day, and I don't need to think about you all the time."

"What about when you don't see me? Will you miss me?"

"Maybe."

"That can't be done." He didn't know when he put his arms around her shoulders, and put his face against hers, "You have to think about me, only me."

She had just said that he had to learn to make demands, and he immediately followed suit and made demands.

The young man's breath rubbed against her face. He had a faint masculine scent, a very light cologne scent, and the traditional refreshing orange blossom scent, which was just right and smelled good.

They both understand that they can't get so close, but, who cares!

"Are you thinking of me too?"

"I miss you very much, I started to miss you as soon as I left you, thinking that I can see you tomorrow morning, then I will always be happy, but—"

"'But' what?"

"I really want to be by your side every day, 24 hours a day without leaving you. What do you think?"

"In that case we'd have to live together."

"Want to live with me?"

"I don't know, Mum might think you're not a good fit to move in with—oh! That's not what you said!"

Oliver smiled and pinched her face, "Sometimes you are smart, sometimes you are stupid, but generally speaking, you are still very smart."

"I think we should keep it like this for a while longer."

"What do you mean?"

"It's a relationship."

"Is this a 'relationship'?"

"Probably so."

"Look, you are only now willing to say that. I thought you would never say that we were lovers."

Lovers.

The word sounds and feels good.

Both of them were very happy.

"Would you like something to eat?" Oliver took the bread basket and picked out a pineapple bread. "I always remember that you like pineapple." He broke off a small piece of bread and stuffed it into her mouth.

The aroma of baked fresh wheat flour, with a hint of sweetness of pineapple, sweet.

The weather was fine, and the sea breeze was blowing leisurely, blowing her hair.

The hair brushed against his face, and he reached out to brush the hair.

It's a good day.

"Tomorrow, are you still coming to draw?"

"Did I draw today?"

laughter.

"Tomorrow, I'll pick you up early in the morning."

"Don't always come too early, or people will think you live with us."

"Then tell me, when will I go there?"

"7:[-] would be better."

"7:20."

"also."

"7:10."

"It might still be a little early."

"Then it's 7:15."

The whole morning was spent in this way, and when she packed up the easel and went back at noon, Alice didn't even wipe the canvas.

Mrs. Austin saw the snow-white canvas and said nothing.

Alice entered the living room, "Mom, I'm going out to dinner with Oliver later."

"Then I have to change clothes." Oliver can take Alice out for a walk, ride a horse, or draw a picture alone. accompany.

"I have to change a dress too." She was used to the life of changing several clothes a day.

The mother and daughter went upstairs together.

"My baby, look at you, you seem to be in a better mood recently." Mom didn't go back to her room, but followed Alice to her room.

Alice opened the closet to pick a skirt, "Probably because Madeira Island has relatively long sunshine hours, more sun exposure will help you have a good mood."

"Isn't it because of Oliver?"

"Partly because of him."

"do you like him?"

"like."

"like very much?"

"like very much."

"he loves you."

"I know that."

"Then you...do you love him too?"

"I don't know that."

"What do you mean 'you don't know'?"

"Mom, what is 'love'?"

"Easiest, just like Dad and me."

Alice picked out a dress, put it on the bed, and then sat on the edge of the bed, "Like you and Dad? Do you love Dad?"

"Of course I love you, little fool, if you don't love him, how could you give birth to your brothers and sisters for him?"

"Is that so? If you love him, you will have children for him?"

"Of course. Look at you brothers and sisters. You are all very kind, excellent, and beautiful. You are the pride of your parents. Think about it, in the future—" Mrs. Austin brushed her hair for her with a smile, "Oliver is a beautiful boy, and you are also a beautiful girl. How cute your children will be in the future!"

Alice was a little skeptical: what mother said today was a bit strange, and the attitude was really too gentle, and the words she said were too inductive.

"It's too early to talk about children," she said tentatively. "First I have to make sure I really love him. I have to make sure I marry him because I love him, not because of his looks or his title." , or, his tenderness."

"It should be, you really should make sure you love him, I think he might be waiting for you to love him too. Is he ready to propose?"

"Mom! How would I know this!" She jumped off the bed, took off her skirt, and put on the one she picked out.

"You can tell him that he can come and propose to you anytime."

Alice was going to ignore this one directly.

Mrs. Austen said nothing about them at lunch.It is a very optimistic mention that a new pulmonary doctor has arrived on the island, and she has already made an appointment for Alice to see her the day after tomorrow.

Alice is very cooperative, seeing a doctor, in fact, it doesn’t matter which doctor you ask, Mrs. Austin has the common problem of a mother who cares about her children, and she always feels that one doctor is not reliable. If many doctors make similar diagnoses, She will be relieved.

Oliver asked Mrs. Austin what time the appointment was, and he would pick up Alice the day after tomorrow and take her to the clinic.He has always accompanied her to follow-up visits, and he was able to know her condition immediately.In fact, he has long regarded himself as Alice's fiancé, but she has never known it.

After lunch, Oliver sent Austin's mother and daughter back to the villa, made an appointment to come at 4 pm, and then left.

After taking a nap, Alice sneaked to her mother's room first, looked through the letters she had received, found the latest letter from Jane, browsed it quickly, folded it up as usual, put it in the drawer, and then quickly slipped back to her room.

As she expected, Jane tactfully mentioned Alice's concerns in the letter, saying that Alice might give up love for something that might not necessarily happen.

Jane has always believed that love is needed to get married, and she cannot force herself for the other party's money and status, no matter how powerful and rich the other party is.Whether to accept a marriage proposal is one of the few things that women can freely choose. Marriage is not terrible. The things that two people have to face together after marriage may be a bit scary, but it is not absolute.

So, mother would say that, but also to persuade her?

After all, my mother is a well-educated woman. If she doesn't talk nonsense, she can still persuade with reason and evidence. For example, what she said today is very good.

Jane also said that Alice is still young, so she can stay at home for a few more years, but if she agrees to the proposal, she will get engaged first, and after the engagement, mother doesn't have to worry all the time.In this day and age, very few people will divorce, unless one party has some major flaws in character, or has committed a crime and went to prison.Therefore, it is very important to find out the character of the other party's family in advance, but because Alice and Oliver have known each other since they were young, they already know these situations, so there is no need to worry at all.

Jane really thought of her very much.

After all, urging marriage is also a common feature of the world, no matter what era it is.

Oliver came over in the afternoon, and Alice asked him to accompany her to sit outside in the arbor, and asked Sidney and Kate to bring the easel, sketching pencils and charcoal.

"What are you going to draw?" Oliver stretched his head to look at the drawing board, where she was pasting drawing paper on the drawing board.

"Draw you." She pointed to the seat by the railing of the gazebo.The gazebo is not big and is mainly used for leisure. It is a hexagon. One side is the entrance without railings, and the other five sides have railings and seats. The above is covered with comfortable cotton cushions, and there are more than a dozen different sizes. pillow.

Oliver sat down, "Can I just sit like this?"

"Just sit down." She also sat down.

First, I drew an outline with a charcoal pencil, and quickly drew a sketch, which took no more than 30 minutes.

Oliver felt that before she had said a few words, she said that the painting was over.

"So fast?" He quickly walked over and looked at the portrait on the drawing paper, "Is this a sketch?" Of course the sketch is incomparable to the oil painting portrait, but she caught his charm, just looking at the sketch, he is An elegant man with tall legs, good proportions, and a small face and head. Alice had said before that he looked very delicate, but he was not suitable to be an easel model because he was not very distinctive.

"It's a sketch." She put down the charcoal pencil and wiped her hands with a wet towel.Suddenly, there was a small charcoal stain on the snow-white towel.

"I'll paint other things in a few days. But I'm not good at oil painting. I want to use this time to practice hard, but there are no good painting teachers on Madeira Island."

"That's okay. You can learn slowly and draw slowly. I can draw as long as you like."

"Aren't you afraid that I'll paint you with a beard and white hair when you were young?"

"What's there to be afraid of?" He grabbed her hand with a smile, brought it to his mouth, and kissed the back of her hand.

Two days later, Oliver came to take Alice to see a doctor.

The condition is still the same as that diagnosed by Dr. Edward. It is improving, but it is not cured yet. As long as it does not deteriorate, it is good news.

Mrs. Austen was really relieved.

Now that she has relaxed her mind for several months, Mrs. Austin also has time to develop her social circle in Madeira Island. During the chat, she began to mention that Alice's condition has improved a lot, as long as it does not deteriorate after winter , Tomorrow summer may be cured.The wives all congratulated her, saying that she could be relieved.

Due to the popularity of Austin typewriters, the surname Austin can be considered famous in places where there are British people. Someone asked her if her family belonged to the Austin family of the typewriter company. Mrs. Austin said implicitly and proudly that it belonged to her fourth son. industry, and won unanimous praise from the wives.

The people who can come to Madeira Island for recuperation and vacation are all wealthy families. Most of them have an Austin typewriter. Typewriters are really convenient and easy to use. It is also very popular among wives to write letters with typewriters. After all, it is impossible for every wife to have If you are willing to work hard to develop a good-looking font, typing with a typewriter can perfectly solve this problem.

As for the steam printing machine, the main business of Austin Industry, very few people know about it, and Mrs. Austin hardly mentions this company.The printing machine has been sold for almost two years, and the sales are very good. Half of the local printing factories in England have been replaced with steam printing machines, and the printing time has been greatly shortened. This means that small printing factories can also accept large orders, of course, mainly religious books.

The cost of the printing machine was high, and the price and profit were not comparable to those of the typewriter. It can be said that it was very profitable. It made back the development cost in the first year, and it started to make a profit in the second year.The exclusive market is indeed very lucrative, but of course it takes a lot of money to manage the relationship between the upper and lower levels, and the public relations expenses are also high.

The shareholder composition of Austin Industries is very simple. There are only Henry and Alice. Most of the dividends they received from the typewriter company in those years were invested in the early development of the printing press. After they started to make profits, they used the profits for To expand reproduction, it is planned to start receiving dividends five years after the printing press is officially sold.

Alice used the annual income of the Beckford family as a model. The annual income of William Beckford’s plantation in Jamaica was around 10 pounds, and the combined profits of several companies in Austin’s family were less than 10 a year. GBP.

She carefully kept this secret, except for brother Henry, Wesley, William, mother and two sisters, cousin Eliza, Tom Lefroy, cousin Thomas, no one else knew that she was actually a person with an annual income of at least 1 pounds rich girl.Oliver and the others only know that she can earn 500 to 800 pounds for writing a novel, which is very profitable for women in this era.Shouldn't she at least tell Oliver, she wondered?

Oliver had no secrets from her, he told her almost everything, and never felt he had anything to hide.His life is relatively simple, and since he didn't mess around in college, he has no secrets.

Looking at the current production and development projects she was engaged in in the early 19th century, she chose very carefully. Typewriters and printing machines have no technical difficulties, but they lack development funds and the foresight to open up the market. They did it, so they occupied this Two blank markets, the profits are considerable.The Austin company can make a fortune by relying on these two products. By the end of the century, the Austin family will become the upper-class richest family in Britain.

Mrs. Austen would not have thought so, nor could she have imagined the prospect.No one could have imagined this prospect. How could anyone in this era have imagined that the First World War would destroy the aristocracy of the various participating countries in Europe?No one in this era could have imagined that in the future, countries all over the world will pay more and more attention to economic development, and the land aristocracy will decline and be replaced by emerging industrial rich families like the Austin family.

Alice spends more and more time with Oliver.

Oliver has also developed a new social circle on Madeira Island. There are some young people of similar age who call for friends all day long and always come to him to play.Together they raced in buggies, sometimes jamming the Funchal traffic; horse races were also common, and that was usually the race from Funchal to other settlements.

It is also essential to show off the beauty of the female partner.

"Female companion" and "lover" are two concepts, and they will definitely not be fiancee.

"Aren't you the only one in this group who doesn't have a female companion?" Alice's eyes widened.

"You know what kind of virtue those guys are," Oliver didn't care about such things at all, "those girls are all for their money. Are you worried that I will be laughed at by those guys? Don't be stupid, how could I be worried The ridicule of others, do you have to get a "female companion"?"

"How do you tell the nature of the woman next to a man?"

"Directly introduce 'this is my fiancée'. If there is no introduction, they are just female companions or mistresses." As he spoke, he frowned.

"what happened?"

"It's my father," he sighed. "Julian wrote me to come home and say he has a—well, mistress, who might be our stepmother someday."

"Hasn't he had several mistresses before?"

"How do you know this?!" He glared at her.

"The servants say it. The servants know everything."

"You little ghost!" He smiled and stretched out his finger on the tip of her nose, "You always like to eavesdrop on other people's conversations."

"I didn't! It's because those servants are too careless, talking about the master's privacy everywhere."

"Since he has done this, he will not be afraid of the servants' gossip. His former mistress... Anyway, that's how it is. It's unrealistic to say that he has never been accompanied by a woman. But Julian was not so flustered before. However, a mistress, you can come and go as soon as you call, since you are a mistress, you will not become the hostess of Newton Manor. But this time, this lady—”

"How old is she?" Alice asked hurriedly.

"I'm not young anymore, I'm in my 30s, and I have a daughter."

"Then you need one more stepmother and one more stepsister."

Oliver frowned again, a little helpless, "I am the heir, and everything I will get in the future will not change, but Julian is different. The father may leave a fortune to the new wife, and it is very likely that he will give it to her daughter. And leave a dowry."

Alice nodded.

In order to ensure that the family property will not be divided by their children, the nobles and rich people have established an heir system to ensure that the heirs can get most of the family property, so that the direct line of the family can always keep most of it family property.The heir may not always be the eldest son, but it will generally be the eldest son, unless the eldest son has made some principled mistakes.

The eldest son inheritance system means that sons other than the eldest son can get very little family property, and most of the younger sons have to rely on their elder brothers. This is why many knights can be summoned during the Crusades. The Holy See launched the Battle of the Holy Land, promising the knights that the property, titles, and rewards obtained during the Eastern Expedition would be their own. In this way, countless young sons became Eastern Expedition Knights, dreaming of fighting for their titles and family property.

So Oliver may not be in a hurry when his father may remarry, but Julian is more anxious.

"But if the baron wants to marry again, what can you do when you go home?"

"I can't do anything, and I can't stop him. After all, he is the baron and the father. He can do whatever he wants. Julian is worried that his share of property will be getting smaller and smaller, and I am worried about another brother. "

Alice suddenly remembered: That's right!It is said that Baron Bundfield's family has a son, but no one has seen it, and the servants of Newton Manor have never mentioned it, at least she has never overheard.

"Is that the little brother no one has seen?"

"Yes," Oliver forced a smile, "my father never remarried, largely because of Albert. Did I never mention him to you?"

"No mention."

"Albert was born with a handicap, no arms, no feet, no lower legs, and the midwife who delivered him was terrified and said that his mother had given birth to a monster. The father was very angry, but the mother died the next day, and he had no time to resent Mother." He lowered his head, weeping sadly, "Mother died, father didn't throw Albert into the wilderness, but sent him far away to be raised by a family in Scotland, except for his newborn baby I haven’t seen Albert in those months, and I don’t even know where he is or if he’s still alive.”

Alice thought, is it a good thing that the baron didn't kill Albert?

People in this era are still very ignorant. Giving birth to a disabled child will be considered a sin from God, or a punishment from God, or that the parents of this family have made a deal with the devil. It depends entirely on the person who spreads the rumor. Mood.Luckily, Brother George was born a healthy child. It was only later that he got sick and became disabled and mentally handicapped. Otherwise, he would definitely be criticized.

According to Oliver's description, Albert should have underdeveloped limbs. Children with this kind of congenital deformity usually don't live long. Maybe this unrecognized child died long ago.

"He used to refuse to marry again because of Albert, but now he suddenly wants to marry again. Does that mean that Albert is dead? He finally doesn't have to carry this big burden."

"Maybe, you can ask the Baron directly." She took out her handkerchief and handed it to him.

He smiled wryly, raised his hand to take the handkerchief, and wiped his tears, "I asked when I was a child, and every time I asked, my father would be furious and scold me for thinking too much. I don't have a little brother at all, I only have Julian." younger brother."

Well, it is normal for the Baron to deny that he has a disabled son.

"Actually, if you think about it this way, Albert can't run and jump like you, can't ride a horse, can't go to school, maybe for him, death is the relief."

The author has something to say:

*Asa is really too skinny too skinny!He'd better lift weights to get fit.But thinking about it, Dati mentioned that he is still very thin now, maybe his physique is not born with fat.

*Hope that Asa can play Dao Tehu in the future, won't there be a local longevity children's idol drama?