Flowers, Swords and France

After sweeping away the haze of being scolded by his father yesterday, Mr. Maurice de Beauvain stayed quietly under the shade of the trees in the Tuileries Garden, looking at the distance from a distance, his eyes full of joy. and expectations.

The setting sun and the buildings in the distance were getting closer and closer, and he became more and more nervous. He frequently took out his pocket watch to check the time. Just when he started to get a little anxious, the carriage engraved with the coat of arms of the Duke of Treville finally arrived, and he quickly greeted it with a smile.

The carriage stopped quickly, but before he could rush to the door and stretch out his hand to help, the people inside got out directly, which made him feel a little regretful - if only he could run faster!

In order to prevent the other party from having a chance to help her, Charlotte specifically asked the coachman to stop the carriage before the gentleman ran over. It seemed to have a good effect so far.

She held up her skirt and walked down, then opened her little parasol with her hands wearing silk gloves.

Then with a normal smile, she walked towards the only son of the big banker.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Bowen."

Her smile made Maurice's heart flutter again, and he bowed diligently.

"Good afternoon, Miss Treville."

"You seem to have been waiting for a long time," Charlotte said with a smile, "I'm not late, am I?"

"I didn't wait long, you arrived on time. Besides, the most beautiful woman in France has the right to be late." Morris quickly continued to be attentive.

It has to be said that his handsome appearance, attentive and flattering words, and his status as the heir of a big banker (this may be the main reason), the combination of the three is very lethal to ordinary women. No wonder this Although the playboy is not very old, he is already well-known in the social circle.

However, it is a pity that he is facing Charlotte, who is not moved by such sweet words at all.

Charlotte kept her contempt and impatience deep in her heart, and dealt with the son of Baron de Beauvin with an unchanging smile.

"What you said sounded nice." She narrowed her eyebrows slightly, looking like she was taking advantage of it. "But let's talk about business first."

"Business?" As soon as he heard this word, Maurice's good mood almost disappeared, and he remembered his father's terrible anger that day, "This... uh..."

"What's wrong, don't you remember? About that mining project..."

"Uh...of course I remember." Seeing that he couldn't hide it, Morris had no choice but to tell the truth, "After you told me that day, I asked my father yesterday, and he told me that everything went well and that it would only take a few more months. Already..."

"Is that all he told you?" Charlotte asked.

"Well, that's it. He said that everyone doesn't need to worry, everything is under control..." Morris looked at Charlotte with some embarrassment.

Princess Treville was still smiling at him, but he felt that this princess's smile was different from the previous smiles, but he couldn't feel what was different.

It seemed he didn't ask anything.

Baron de Beauvin seemed to know his son quite well, and knew that he was useless and easily manipulated.

"Oh, I understand..." Charlotte seemed to be relieved, "Since your father said so, there should be no problem. It seems that I am just wasting my mind..."

Then she smiled and nodded at him. "Thank you, Maurice."

The uneasiness in Maurice's heart was quickly replaced by ecstasy, because this was the first time that the Duchess of Treville, whom he had longed for for a long time, called him by his name directly in front of him, instead of the cold "Monsieur de Beauvin".

"This...this is what I...what I should do..." He replied hurriedly, even his voice was trembling.

Charlotte ignored him, and the two continued to walk along the flower garden, chatting from time to time about the latest social news.

After calculating that the time was right and it was no longer rude to say goodbye, Charlotte took out a blue enamel pocket watch inlaid with small pearls from her arms and checked the time.

"Ah, it's already this time," she looked up at Morris again, "I have something else to do in the afternoon..."

"Oh, it doesn't matter, of course, you can do whatever you want." Morris was still immersed in the joy just now.

"Then, farewell!" Charlotte saluted him again with a smile, then turned around and walked slowly towards her carriage holding an umbrella.

Looking at the charming back of the princess, Morris had an impulse for no reason - today's "victory" gave him too much confidence.

"Miss Treville, I may have a dance at home soon. Can you please come and attend?"

After he finished speaking, his heartbeat suddenly accelerated, and he secretly regretted his impulsiveness.

The Princesse de Treville continued to walk slowly forward, seemingly unaware of it.

Just when his heart had sunk to the bottom, the young lady suddenly turned around and came back, her smile as warm as spring.

"As for the dance, I may not have time to attend it recently. But I will probably visit your father recently. After all, I have been well-known to him for a long time and have always wanted to ask him for advice on how to do business. Please don't stop me then. Come to the door."

Morris was immediately overjoyed.

"sure!"

"Thank you." Miss Treville bowed gracefully again, then turned and left.

Thank God! Thank you father! Morris felt like he had never admired his father so much.

But he could not notice that the extremely lovely Miss Treville had completely put away her smile after turning around, leaving only endless coldness.

Something was wrong, really wrong.

Ever since she participated in the investment in this project, Charlotte had always felt a little uneasy, so she also inquired from many parties again, and finally thought of using Baron Bovan's son to test it.

As a result, her uneasiness was not only not eliminated, but became more and more intense.

The project that originally seemed to be waiting to make a fortune was now covered with layers of gray fog, and there were more and more ominous shadows, which made her feel more and more uneasy.

She accidentally learned about this project from Maurice and then encouraged her grandfather to participate. After a period of investigation, the money had been transferred to the account there. If something really went wrong, the Duke of Treville's family would obviously suffer a huge loss because of her, which was a consequence that Charlotte could not bear.

When she thought of this, she couldn't help but feel a little scared.

………………

Miss Perriette, who was very powerful, did not disappoint Charles. He received a letter from her at noon the next day.

"Dear friend, at your request, I have conducted a preliminary investigation on this matter and obtained the following information:

Although it is rumored that Baron de Bovan is involved in this project, his bank did not guarantee it. The project was financed by another bank, and this bank was not directly responsible for the project.

The original text can be found in the six # 9 @book/bar!

The specific person in charge of this project is a local bank in Lorraine. This bank has been operating in the local area for many years and has a good credit.

The following is the current situation.

If you need to borrow money from me to participate in this project, I personally suggest that you wait and see first, find out more about the situation and then consider it, because in my opinion there are still many unclear points that need to be understood.

Your friend

Catherine de Perriette"

After reading this letter, Charles could not help but get angry.

Because he had completely understood it.

Naturally, there was no need to consider this loan.

What is "good credit"? Who can guarantee good credit in the face of huge sums of money? There are more than one or two people who absconded with the money. It's okay if others don't know much about it, but would this famous banker be so gullible? Obviously, they didn't intend to take risk responsibility from the beginning!

Even Charles, who was not particularly knowledgeable in his previous life, knew that this was a common fraud in the 19th century. There were many people doing this in railway engineering, land speculation, and mineral development, but there were very few who could play on this scale. I think they were all deceived by the reputation of the surname De-Bovan, just like my grandfather.

I didn't expect that De-Bovan, this bastard, would actually deceive me. It's simply unforgivable!

Charles was not angry that Baron Bovan committed fraud. From ancient times to the present, bankers have been synonymous with cheating people without spitting out bones. He was angry that his family almost fell for it and lost a family's savings.

Forget it, there is no point in being angry. Anyway, I haven't invested any money yet, so I don't have to cry when the time comes. Charles suppressed his anger and comforted himself in his heart.

Thinking of this, he inadvertently recalled the Baron's kind face and the conversation he had with him at the art exhibition that day. This guy was seriously considering national affairs and thinking about how to make the country's economic policies more reasonable; at the same time, he was unscrupulously planning how to make people go bankrupt... This is really contradictory.

No, this is not contradictory, this is a capitalist.

Forget it, ignore him, just pretend that this matter did not happen, fortunately no losses were suffered. Charles decided to explain this to his grandfather later, and then let him give up all ideas of participating in this project.

Just then...

"Pah"!

A stone hit the shutter, leaving an ugly stain on it, and the shutter swayed slightly with an unpleasant hissing sound.

What?

"Pah" "Pah" "Pah"

Before Charles could react, several more stones hit the shutter.

Which dead kid is playing such a prank?

The Marquis's residence was not big, and Charles's study was directly facing the alley outside. The wall was only a few steps away from the residence, so people on the street could throw stones directly onto the windowsill.

Charles was a little annoyed, and hurriedly left the desk and walked to the window. Then, at the critical moment, he quickly lowered his head, and a stone flew in close to his hair.

A moment of peripheral vision was enough.

He found a carriage parked on the side of the road, and the one who threw stones there was not a child, but... the coachman.

Anger made him stand in front of the window again. He ignored the executor and yelled at the person next to him.

"What are you crazy about!"

It seemed that seeing Charles's embarrassed look when he was dodging the stone just now, Charlotte laughed very happily, a real, heartfelt smile, the kind of happy smile when the two of them played her prank successfully when they were young.

"Who told you to let the doorman say he was not there!" (To be continued.)