Rimbaud's girl

Maupassant was ill.

He had a fever, aches and pains, migraines, and red rashes all over his body.He reluctantly got out of bed, but saw Vitaly dropped 500 francs of gold coins with a look of horror, and left quickly.

Vincent, who was accompanying her, looked puzzled, so he hurriedly bid farewell to Maupassant and chased her out.

Vitaly had already boarded the carriage, her face was pale, she wrote a line of words on a piece of sketch paper with charcoal, tore it off, and asked Vincent to give it to Maupassant.

Vincent walked on the stairs, secretly opened the note and read: You idiot!Go to the doctor!

He thought about why she showed a complex expression of disgust and helplessness, and then he figured it out: Maupassant has syphilis!It's just a common fever and cold, she can't be scared to leave immediately.He knew that syphilis was a venereal disease and required sexual contact. She would not have any intimate contact with Maupassant, so there was no need to be afraid.

Maybe the trip to the church sanitarium the other day had frightened her.

He was in a complicated mood.

Maupassant saw him go back and forth, and brought him a note. He opened the note and nodded with a wry smile.

This incident deepened Vitaly's fear of syphilis. After returning to the Crosval Manor, she dug out old Flaubert's medical books, looked for chapters about syphilis treatment, and asked Vincent to find him in a bookstore in Paris. Buy related books and bring them to her next time.

During her absence in the manor, Flaubert took his niece to visit his brothers and sisters. The four relatives were not bad, so they collected 4 francs and lent them to him, which means that the relationship is still there.

Vitaly brought back 2 francs from the sale of paintings and 1 francs from the sale of jewelry, and Mrs. Commanville returned home with a total of 2 francs.

Vitaly asked Flaubert, "It's not like the Conmanville family can't borrow any money, right? There are always relatives and friends who can borrow some money."

He nodded wearily, "I can borrow a little, but I don't know how much."

"If Caroline is not willing to divorce, she only needs to contribute half of it. How can she get the full 38 yuan? The joint debt only needs to bear half of it." 19 francs is still affordable, no need Sell ​​the estate.Then I sold the house in downtown Rouen and the villa in Le Havre, and collected 2 to 3 yuan. The pressure is not great, and the manor and fields can be kept. I can save some money and buy a house again in the future.

"That's what my brother said."

"Or, you can rent out the manor. You and I will live in Paris. I have inquired about it. The rent for a suitable villa is 2200 francs a year, and the living area is smaller. 2000 francs are enough to accommodate you, the housekeeper, and me." Paco, Mrs. Reval, two maids, two servants, and a stable and a carriage house. If you don’t go out much, you don’t have a carriage and a coachman. The rent is about 1600 francs a year. The servants can’t be less .”

Flaubert smiled sadly, "This is also a way. If you rent it out, you will spend a lot less on daily maintenance."

The actual annual expenditure is the rent plus servants' salaries plus living expenses plus installation and transportation expenses. It costs about 8000 francs a year, and this is the case when they don't go out very much.The carriage needs to be maintained, the horses need to be fed with fodder, and there must be a separate coachman. These are all expenses. If the carriage is not used, it will cost more than 1 francs a year.If you live in a house that costs 1600 francs, then 600 francs less.

However, finding suitable tenants is not so easy. After all, there are far fewer rich people in Rouen than in Paris.

It is also reasonable for Mrs. Conmanville to be unwilling to divorce. In this era, women rarely initiate divorce. They can only file for divorce when their husband cheats on him or lives with his mistress in the joint residence of the husband and wife. The other is when the husband has physically abused her. For example, Mathilde proposed separation and divorce because Verlaine burned her hair and beat and abused her.Conmanville did not cheat or beat his wife, and Mrs. Conmanville could not initiate a divorce.

Human greed is endless, and Conmanville is probably the same. Once he tastes the sweetness, he can't help but invest more and more.She didn't bother to understand what investment failed, it had nothing to do with her.Now she only makes a little long-term investment in art, and it is foreseeable that it will slowly start to appreciate in a few years, and there is no possibility of investment failure.

She gave the remaining jewelry to Flaubert, and Flaubert gave her the jewelry box, "I have nothing for you, these jewelry are worthless, you can wear them for fun." He sighed sadly , "It's a pity that your parents are still alive, so I can't adopt you. Otherwise, if you can inherit the manor in the future, you will definitely treat it well."

Vitaly was surprised, "Sir—"

"I don't have any children. In the future, who will I leave this manor to?" He said sadly, "I originally wanted to leave the manor to Caroline, but look, Henry—" He was extremely disappointed, "Caroline If Rowling gets the manor, it will be Henry's in the end, and I don't want to fill it with gold coins endlessly."

He was dazed for a long time, "I wrote to invite Mrs. Rimbaud to come and ask her if she agrees to my adoption. Where is your father? Where is he?"

"Dijon," Vitaly whispered, "he... he's not very good, a terrible father."

"Let me also write a letter to ask for his permission. Or, I can take you to him to talk in person."

Vitaly bit her lower lip and said nothing.

"Silly boy, don't worry, I'm very good at persuading people." Flaubert smiled slightly ironically, "I adopted you, so you can add my last name. I can't give you a better status And more inheritance, you can only get a bad last name, a decent house, and in the future... you will also help me look after Caroline and her two children. Never mind Henry, just card As long as Rowling and the kids get by."

She thought about it and nodded.Flaubert really thought well. If he left the manor to his niece, it would end up as Conmanville, and he would definitely not be reconciled.Adopt her, and she will definitely not ignore Mrs. Conmanville in the future. This will avoid the end of the manor falling into the hands of Conmanville, and it will also ensure that Caroline and the children will not even have a place to live in the future.

Her surname will be changed to "Flaubert-Rimbaud". Of course, there are still some advantages. It will improve her social class, at least in terms of marriage with Gabriel, and the obstacles will be much smaller; "Bye" is also a good name.So sure enough, when Flaubert said that she was not a student, he probably already thought about adopting her in the future?Daughters are of course closer than schoolgirls.

Flaubert quickly wrote to invite Mrs. Rimbaud to the Crosval Manor; Vitaly also wrote to her mother, asking her to come, but did not write to Arthur and Gabriel.

Mrs. Rimbaud came to Rouen in a hurry, and Vitaly went to the Rouen train station to pick her up and returned to the manor.

Mrs. Rimbaud didn't think it was about adoption, so she hesitated.

"Don't you worry, I have no foreign debts, and I have no nefarious aims towards Vitaly, I like her, I have liked her since she first came to Crosswald. You know, I am not married, have no children, and have no An illegitimate child." Flaubert would never have contact with an ignorant housewife like Mrs. Rimbaud. "I have this manor. In the future, after I die, Vitaly will get the manor. My mother has seen Vitaly, she also likes her very much, and said that if I have a daughter who is as cute and intelligent as Vitaly, that would be my luck.

"Vitale helped me with my mother's funeral, I am very grateful to her, she was just a child... Mrs. Rimbaud, what a child you have raised! I ask your permission, this will only give her Bringing benefits, she will become a very good woman, and in the future, if she marries a boy from the Oran family, the Oran couple will not pick on her origin...you should think about it carefully."

Madame Rimbaud looked serious, but she was also pleased that Flaubert praised her daughter so much, "She is still a child..."

"A sensible and capable girl, I have long regarded her as my daughter."

"You know, her father is still alive. . . . If you hadn't been so famous, if Vitaly hadn't wanted to be a writer, I could have decided about her alone, but—" Madame Rimbaud worried, "I Having not seen Captain Rimbaud for many years, I have no way of knowing whether he would agree."

"I will take Vitaly to Dijon, with his permission."

Mrs. Rimbaud felt that there was no more hesitation. She nodded solemnly, "Okay, I agree with you to adopt my daughter, Vitaly Rimbaud."

Flaubert was very happy, "Tomorrow we will go to the lawyer and sign a consent form."

There was nothing wrong with this. In Mrs. Rimbaud's opinion, it might be too good, and she couldn't believe it.

She whispered to Vitaly: "I hope your father will agree immediately, I don't see anything wrong with this matter. I'm afraid... he will ask Mr. Flaubert for a large sum of money. That People!"

Vitaly frowned, "I thought about it too... I don't want to give him a cent, and I even want to ask him for another sum of money!"

After Flaubert mentioned taking her to Dijon, she began to consider Captain Rimbaud's reaction.Don't underestimate a man's desire. Back then she asked for a lot of money and forced his mistress away. Captain Rimbaud might ask for more money to embarrass her and take revenge on her. I can't get the money out for a while.

She had to get rid of Captain Rimbaud first, so he wouldn't have time to think about blackmail.She wanted to borrow someone from Gabriel, but she found it troublesome, and she didn't want him to know about her family's shit, so she thought of Louis Mandarion, who almost strangled her back then.

She had already forgotten the address of Mandarian's house. However, Marseille is not bigger than Paris, so it shouldn't be too difficult to find Mandarian's house. She planned to go to Marseille.

After sending off Mrs. Rimbaud and settling in Flaubert's daily life, Vitaly took Mrs. Reval and Leon the servant, first to Paris, then Vincent, and then to Marseilles.

Paris is in the northwest of France and Marseille is in the southeast of France, spanning more than half of the country.We stopped in Lyon in the Alps for two days, visited the ancient city of Lyon, and then took the train from Lyon to Marseille.

Marseille is located in Provence, a city along the Mediterranean Sea and the largest port in France. The weather in April, Mediterranean climate, is very warm, but not too hot, very pleasant.

The bright azure Mediterranean immediately attracted the two future painters, and Vitaly immediately decided to stay in a hotel by the sea.She sent the servants to inquire about Mandalian's house, and went to the painting material store with Vincent to buy easels, canvases, drawing paper, brushes, pencils, charcoal, gouache, watercolors, etc. Outside, start a lot of practice drawing beaches, oceans, horizons, seabirds, sailboats, distant islands, and more.

Vincent is very happy. With Vitaly, a rich man, he can buy the painting materials he needs at will. He has a lot of research on painting materials. They have to carefully compare and choose the painting material that he thinks is the best or the most suitable for him.

He has not developed a color preference, nor has he practiced the basic skills well, but this natural and pure blue is the color Vitaly likes, so he also likes these deep -->>

Shades of blue.

They paint day and night. The climate in Marseille is very good, which is suitable for outdoor painting, mainly because it is neither hot nor cold.They painted everything they could see, the ocean, the trees, the streets, and the people on the streets.

Vitaly doesn't know how to teach people how to paint, but she can see what Vincent is lacking in: he lacks the systematic basic skills practice of the academic school, and he hasn't learned much about color comparison. It can be said that he is drawing entirely by instinct at present, but It's not a purposeless doodle, he's trying to figure it out.

He tried various painting tools and used some strange "paintbrushes" to find that "feeling". Sometimes he simply applied paint on the canvas with his fingers. Vitaly also learned to paint with his fingers. He applied a touch of golden yellow to his face, and after finishing painting, he laughed out loud at the stunned him.

... He was stunned at the time, probably because this gesture was very intimate, and it was the only contact between them beyond the handshake on body parts.

His face turned red quickly, and he muttered: "You made me covered in paint!"

Paint was inevitable when painting, and Vitaly sent Mrs. Reval to buy off-white linen and made two queer smocks with ties at the back to keep the paint from staining the clothes.

Vitaly had already wiped her hands with a wet towel, "I won't draw today, I'm so tired, I'm going to sleep." She yawned and walked back to the room.

After a while, Vincent took off his blouse, entered the room, and found that she was flipping through the paintings he had drawn in the past few days.

He was a little shy, "Don't look! I'm not as good at drawing as you."

"That's because I've been learning painting longer than you. It's nothing. After you have studied for several years, you will definitely be able to draw well." She was looking at his brushstrokes: very immature and rough, problems caused by lack of basic skills , the color tone is quite satisfactory, but it seems to be a bit yellowish, I don't know why; maybe after this trip to Marseilles, his color will be bluer?It's hard to say, he seems to like blue very much, deep blue.

He also paints at night, the night scene, the street under the night, the figure under the moonlight, and the flower pot on the balcony railing. These immature works still don’t show any name, and they don’t see the prospect of a top painter. .

But it is still early, he has just started to step into the profession of painting, or, career, he can still mature slowly.

They have been in Marseille for 4 days, and Leon has not yet found the Mandarian family, so Vitaly wrote a missing person advertisement this morning, asked Leon to send it to the local newspaper, and gave him a gold Napoleon to do it. advertising costs.

"Louis Mandarion, a boy from Dijon a few years ago, now your creditor, Miss Vitaly, is looking for you. Please go to the first floor of the Côte d'Azur Hotel."

Louis Mandarion arrived before dinner.

The skinny boy from back then has grown up, with the same eyebrows and eyes, exquisite facial features, and a lot taller. Now he should be 1 meters, and he is a very good-looking and handsome boy.

Her complexion is still fair, but not so unhealthily pale. There are some freckles on both sides of the nose, not many; her eyes are blue and clear.He is very well dressed, with a custom-made handmade long coat, a top hat, and a bouquet of blue-purple lavender in his hand.

He waited neatly under the stairs in the lobby, and recognized Vitaly who came down the stairs at a glance: she was wearing a cornflower blue Chinese jacquard satin dress with a generous collar, and a white plain yarn on the neckline. There is a piece of sky-blue crystal in the middle seam, just in the middle of the snow-white chest.

Her breasts are full and well developed, her complexion is fair, and the blue color makes her complexion as white as snow. Louis always "accidentally" looked at her breasts.

In the past, he was not yet 11 years old and did not understand how beautiful she was. Now he is 15 years old and has a correct concept of "beauty". "Beauty" is simple and natural, and "beauty" Unusual again, because true "beauty" is rare.

He showed a shy smile, "Vitale."

The reckless boy back then has grown into a handsome young man without accident. He looks well-bred and has a good quality of life. He is a pampered young master.

I took the lavender from him, "Thank you." The scent of lavender is elegant. In Marseille, people's favorite flower is not lavender, but lavender. Put a bunch in the room, it is a pure natural air freshener.

"Have you had dinner yet?" he asked.

"No."

"Let me treat you to dinner." He tried to pretend to be old-fashioned, "Torcy, is there any good restaurant around here?" Not far behind him stood a valet in his 40s.

"Yes, master, Donna's restaurant is very good." Torcy replied.

Louie gestured, "Please."

"Why did you come to Marseille?" Louis asked after sitting in the restaurant.

"Come and play." Vitaly put down the lavender bouquet, "How about you? How have you and Mrs. Mandarian been doing these past few years?"

He smiled. "Mother has remarried and is now Mrs. Vermorin."

Vitaly wasn't surprised.Mrs. Mandarian is beautiful, well educated, and has little property. She shouldn't have anything to do with a commoner like Captain Rimbaud.

"What kind of person is your stepfather, can you tell me?"

"He has a shipping company with more than 20 ships, and the farthest route is to the Far East." He looked at her chest again, "Tomorrow I will send you some Chinese silk, and others. Mother likes those little things in the Far East." There are many, many silks, fans, vases, and handkerchiefs at home."

More than 20 ships, that can be regarded as a big shipping company.

"You don't need to send me something special."

"That's interest," Louis said solemnly, "You are my creditor, and I will never forget it."

"But you haven't written to me or visited me for so many years."

He looked innocent, "You didn't even give me your home address, so I can't write to you."

"Won't you go to Charleville and find me?"

He was stunned, and after a while, he said embarrassingly: "My mother won't let me go out. She...we haven't seen Captain Rimbaud in the past few years, and she wants to forget those things." He said vaguely.

"There's no need to remember. What about you? You haven't asked how Captain Rimbaud is doing now, have you?"

"No. Why, do you want to inquire about him?"

"Yes, I want to know how he is doing now, whether he is still living in Dijon, whether he is sick, whether he has money."

He looked at her suspiciously, "I mainly want to know if he still has money?"

She looked at him with bright eyes and nodded, "He can't live too well. I can save some money so that he won't starve to death, but he can't think about anything else."

Louis thought it was very interesting, he thought about it seriously, "I can send someone to Dijon to inquire, it will take a few days. You stay in the hotel and wait for my news."

He was a little disappointed that she didn't ask him where he went to school or where he lived now.

In the next few days, Louis accompanied Vitaly and Vincent van Gogh to the nearby historical and cultural city of Avignon-Nyon, where they visited many paintings of the Provence school.Before the Renaissance, painters painted a large number of paintings on religious themes. Many famous painters took orders from churches, and churches especially liked to find painters to paint religious murals. Even many humble chapels had authentic murals by well-known painters of the Provence School.For the era of underdeveloped printing technology, being able to appreciate the authentic works of famous paintings on the spot is a necessary step to broaden the knowledge of famous artists.

Because Provence is close to Italy, during the Renaissance, many Italian painters went to Marseille and surrounding cities to set up studios, live and work, and the artistic atmosphere is relatively strong. The Marseille area is indeed very suitable for living, with a typical Mediterranean climate. Two months are slightly colder, and the other months can be said to be warm and pleasant. It is much better than the chilly Charleville, Paris, and London. The latitude of London is higher than Charleville, so you can imagine how cold it is in winter;

Moreover, because it is a port city, countless items come in and out of the port, and the material is rich. You can eat fresh fish and fresh fruits at any time. Fruits from various countries in the Mediterranean are piled up in the market. Different races, all this is dizzying for the "outsiders".

The author has something to say: *Flaubert’s small group is simply a sanatorium for syphilis patients. Flaubert, Daudet, Maupassant, and Goncourt are all syphilis patients. Only Zola survived, probably because Zola had a regular extramarital affair Mate, don't go out for a while.Turgenev doesn't seem to have either, probably because he has a goddess in his heart and doesn't mess around.

The cause of Flaubert's death was cerebral congestion, which is also one of the symptoms after Treponema pallidum invades the brain.

After entering the 21st century, the number of cases of syphilis infection in our country has increased. According to a random search, some data show that about 60% of rural female patients are infected by their husbands.Penicillin may not completely cure syphilis.All in all, terrible.

*Take a look at Van Gogh’s timeline: In June 1869, he was an apprentice in a painting shop in The Hague, and in the spring or summer of 6, he went to Goupil, London. London; transferred to Paris Goupil in September, left Paris and went to London in December, stayed until May 1873, returned to Paris, stayed in Paris Goupil until March 1874, and resigned.

Rimbaud left Paris for Belgium in July 1872, and went to London with Verlaine in September; he returned to Charleville in November, and went to London again in January 7. In April, Verlaine returned to Paris, and Rimbaud returned to Roches; "Most of the poems may have been written between April and August 9; in June, Rimbaud went to London with Verlaine again; On the 11th, Verlaine shot and wounded Rimbaud, Verlaine was imprisoned, and Rimbaud returned to Charleville; in March 1873, Rimbaud went to London again, and in July, Mrs. Rimbaud took her eldest daughter Vitaly to London to visit Son, because Rimbaud fell ill; at the end of December 1, after Christmas, Rimbaud returned to Charleville again.

So these two geniuses, who both died at the age of 37, lived in London at the same time for several months in 1873 and 74.

*At the end of 1874, van Gogh was working in Goupil, London, Rimbaud was unemployed in London (probably as a French teacher, job and income were unstable), Wilde was at Maudlin College in Oxford, Poincaré was at Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, Forlan At the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Freud at the University of Vienna, Crown Prince Eugene at the Woolwich Military Academy.Children from good families are all going to college, and children from ordinary families are already going out to work and earn money to support themselves.

*Looking at the biographies of Rimbaud and Van Gogh, they are really tossing, most of the time they are struggling for money, and a penny is hard for a hero.It was really not easy for Van Gogh to persist in learning painting in such an environment. Another person would have collapsed and compromised.Rimbaud is also very tossed, but because he has given up writing, it is better.