Flowers, Swords and France

Soon, all the guests came to the hall where the banquet was held in the palace.

The luxurious crystal chandelier made the entire hall as bright as day, and well-dressed men and women gathered together in twos and threes to chat. The gold-plated tableware, the jewelry worn by the women, and the candlelight reflected by the medals worn by the men complement each other, creating an atmosphere of wealth and wealth!

The sounds of people talking, the band playing, footsteps, and collisions also mixed together to form a complex and noisy track that was dizzying.

All of these things suddenly made Ciel feel like he was in an illusory world, but it was only for a moment.

Fran followed Charles, carefully holding his hand, and carefully holding the fan in her other hand. Ciel's spirit was elsewhere - he had been looking for Charlotte, but among such a mixed crowd, he couldn't find her for a while.

"Brother, are you looking for Charlotte?" Fran asked casually, "You seem very anxious?"

"Oh, it's rare that I bumped into her today. It's always a bad idea not to say hello..." Charles replied with a smile.

"Just saying hello?" Fran's flat tone seemed to contain some sarcasm.

"Then what else do you think I want to do?" Charles asked in a low voice.

"Who knows what you think." Fran's tone was still very cold.

The handsome young man and the bright girl have secretly attracted a lot of gazes, and most of them are heading towards Fran. Charles feels these gazes with inquiry, curiosity, appreciation and envy, and some of them are even... With some evil overtones.

"Okay, don't be unhappy, Fran." Charles calmly turned away a little, shielding his sister from these sights, and then said to Fran with a smile, "This is your first time stepping into society. You can get the opportunity to be called into the court by Lady Adelaide, shouldn't you show your heart? Many girls will probably be jealous if they learn about your luck. Go crazy..."

Just when Fran was still about to say something, she found that her classmate Miss de Beauvain and her father had walked beside her.

"I'm not jealous, Mr. Treville." Laura nodded to Charles first, and then said something with a smile, indicating that she had just overheard what Charles said.

Baron Beauvain, on the other hand, had a kind face and smiled without saying a word. Although he was short and fat, his elegant clothes and the medal on his ribbon could still make people feel his air of magnanimity.

Charles understood what the baron meant, so he nodded slightly to his sister and motioned for her and Laura to go aside to chat first. After understanding her brother's intentions, Fran obeyed his request and walked away with Laura.

After the two girls left, Baron Bowen, who had been laughing, spoke.

"Mr. Treville, although I am surprised, I am really honored to see you here today... This is really a big surprise."

Although the smile on his face did not change at all, his eyes were full of inquiry. Apparently he didn't just want to say hello.

What he meant was obvious - why are you here today? What is your purpose? What do you want to do?

Since the two parties have recently reached a preliminary intention to cooperate, of course he doesn't like the Bonapartists being so independent. He is afraid of causing some big trouble, which will hinder his investment plan.

"I am also honored to meet you." Charles replied with a smile, "However, I did not expect such an opportunity before. Because my sister is particularly favored by Ms. Adelaide, so she wanted to take advantage of this opportunity. The opportunity came to invite us brothers and sisters to visit the palace... The opportunity was so rare that I couldn't refuse it, so I came alone. "

He also told the other party that he came alone today and had no special purpose, so he should rest assured.

After hearing Charles's answer, Baron Bowen obviously didn't quite believe it, so he frowned slightly. However, even though he thought hard, he couldn't think of any other purpose for Ciel, so he had no choice but to accept his explanation.

"Oh, that's it. I wish you and your sister have a good time." He quickly put on a smile again, and then complimented Charles's sister by the way, "By the way, your sister is really good-looking. She is beautiful. I think she is the prettiest among the girls who came today. Originally, I thought my daughter was pretty enough and wanted to show her off. But today I saw she was even worse than your sister... …Hey, if I had known I wouldn’t have brought her here.”

There was obviously some joking and intentional flattery in his words. Aren't bankers accustomed to complimenting their customers?

But Charles was unceremonious and accepted everything as ordered.

"I think so." He replied firmly, without the humility that others used when talking about themselves. Then, he picked up a glass of wine on the table next to him and nodded gently towards the banker. "Have a good time tonight too."

Seeing Charles's expression, the banker seemed to finally believe that he was not here to stir up trouble today, so he seemed to be relieved. He also picked up the glass of wine next to him.

"Thanks."

The two had a drink, and then each went back to pick up the girl on his side.

Fran and Laura have been chatting next to each other. It seems that they are talking and laughing all the time.

"You don't know yet, my brother, when he was a child, he loved..." Fran seemed to be talking about something about Charles, and her voice was very loud.

"Franc, what are you talking about?" Upon hearing this, Charles interrupted them.

"We are talking about our childhood." Lola nodded to Charles calmly.

"Oh, it's an honor." He responded casually.

Suddenly, he found that Fran's face was red.

"Hey! Why are you drinking...?!"

No wonder she was so loud just now.

"Don't blame her, I was joking and said that everyone should taste it together..." There seemed to be some apology in Lola's tone, "I didn't expect..."

I didn't expect her to be so intolerant of alcohol, right? Who would have thought!

Fran has always been unable to drink alcohol. Even if it is fruit wine with almost no alcohol, she will quickly become flushed and her eyes blurred after drinking, just like... just like... just like now.

Although she had only drunk a little red wine, Fran looked as if she was about to be drunk, her face was red as if water was about to drip out.

The original text is available at 6 # 9 @Book/Bar!

"Stupid, you can't drink but you still want to be strong!" Seeing her look, Charles felt distressed and a little funny.

"It's okay..., it's just... just... I drank... a little... that's all." Fran replied in a gentle voice, as if she didn't know that her tongue was almost tied.

"Stupid!" Charles couldn't help but "scold" again, then supported her with his hand, then he and Laura nodded and said goodbye, and then planned to take Fran to the lounge next to him to rest.

Supporting his sister, Charles walked past a group of guests.

"I heard that Ireland has suffered a great disaster, sir?"

"Yes, ma'am," a man dressed like a diplomat replied, "The disaster there is very serious. In large areas, the crops are almost completely gone. It looks like something serious is going to happen."

"Oh, they are really pitiful..." A lady sighed in a very sad tone, with a very sad and painful look, "God bless these poor people."

"Madam, your kindness is enough to move God." The man whispered a compliment, "As Christians, we will all pray for them."

At this time, the Irish crisis has become a topic of discussion throughout Europe.

Although in 1801, the British Parliament passed the "Anglo-Irish Union Act", which officially incorporated Ireland into the British King's rule and became a British territory, the British still treated the Irish as a colony, just like in the past few centuries.

At this time, the land in Ireland was almost completely occupied by British landlords, and most of the big landlords lived in England and rarely visited their territories. They only cared about the export of grain and livestock. Therefore, most of Ireland's agricultural income was exported abroad, and most of the Irish farmers could only be tenants of British land nobles. Since the land area they obtained was very small, they could only grow potatoes to feed their families.

The single crop planting made the risk of crop resistance to disease extremely high. A fungus was introduced from foreign countries to the island of Ireland and then spread rapidly. It could greatly damage the growth of potatoes. So starting in 1845, Ireland's crop yields dropped sharply, and eventually led to a war that swept across the island of Ireland.

However, in the face of Ireland's unprecedented war, the Queen of England and the British government remained indifferent, allowing the disaster to spread and the Irish people to leave corpses everywhere. Even those British landlords continued to export grain from Ireland to the British mainland. Throughout the famine era, Ireland was a grain export destination.

In November 1847, hundreds of thousands of Irish people had starved to death, and by the end, a total of more than one million Irish people died of famine. Another million Irish people fled by boat to escape the fate of starvation and drifted to foreign countries.

At this moment, the British still praised the glorious and glittering Victorian prosperity with emotion. No one cared much about these Irish people. Maybe it would be better if they disappeared.

On the European continent, the experience of the Irish people aroused only moral sympathy.

Everyone in the social scene sighed for these poor people, and some loving ladies even cried, but not many people really did anything about it. Talk is just talk after all.

Charles was the same. Compared with the one million figures on paper, he cared more about those living people.

He supported his sister and walked to the side without hearing anything.

Suddenly, someone blocked his way. He looked up and saw that it was the court lady who brought the old painter and himself in.

The lady had a very serious expression, like the embodiment of the court itself.

"Mr. Treville, Ms. Adelaide wants to see you and your sister. Can you come with me?" (To be continued.)