The Happy Life of a Duchess

After Adele bid farewell to Mariana and returned home, she was summoned by the Duke's father.

She asked Mary to pass the message and wait until she had changed.

"Oh, by the way, Mary," Adele stopped her again, "I bought you and Jenny a pair of pearl earrings, I think it suits you well, you can also go to some public dances or private parties during the social season , I just need to make an agreement with the housekeeper in advance and arrange a good time, I am not restricting you in this regard, if you want, you can also bring Jenny with you."

"Miss..." Mary was still completely moved, but after hearing the name "Jenny" she hated, she calmed down again.

"I trust you the most. You are the most capable and considerate girl besides Armand." Adele looked at her trustingly. "Jenny is not as careful as you in doing things, and she is careless. I am always afraid that she will Time will cause trouble, only a reliable person like you can take her with you."

"Miss, of course I will try my best to do my best."

Mary's face was full of shame, and she was also confident in her own abilities. As far as the level of hair braiding and dressing was concerned, she would not be far behind.

"Jenny's situation is quite special, and she is not on the same path as you."

Adele stepped forward to hold her hand. There was still a faint smell of medicine on Mary's body, as if she had just rubbed something on her face. Mary herself still felt a little uncomfortable, but Adele didn't look strange at all.

"In the future, one of you will be in charge of my makeup, hair, and clothing, and the other will be in charge of my daily diet. You will be my right-hand man." Adele made a promise, "Amande is also getting older, so he must let go slowly. , I don’t trust you, can I find other maids in the manor to serve me?”

Mary was convinced, she completely believed in Adele's words, and Adele really did not intend to find another maid.

On the one hand, she is not like a real noble lady of this era, who needs to be accompanied by maids all the time. On the other hand, she thinks that under the leadership of Armand, Jenny and Mary are enough to handle most of the problems for her. The rest can be assigned to housekeepers and servants to complete.

If such reassurance and reassurance reassured the sensitive, vulnerable, cry-prone Mary, and eased some of the hostility toward Jenny, that would be fine in every way.

"Miss, before the Easter ball or any other ball, please allow me to reiterate your social understanding for you, and arrange for the etiquette teacher Mrs. Semantha to teach you the necessary etiquette and dance content."

When Armand found Adele, she was arranging flowers in a white porcelain vase with freshly cut flower branches.

"Of course, there is no problem." Adele admired her finished product, and when she felt that it was all right, she motioned for Mary to take it to the table in the living room outside and place it on the table in the living room outside. With Jenny's help, she quickly took off the mask. The dewy apron was replaced by a more formal skirt.

"Armand, can you tell me something?"

The moment she put on the corset, Adele felt uncomfortable, but she had no choice but to reduce the time she wore it and choose a more fit and healthy size.

A waist without a corset would have been a disaster in a dress like this, and she didn't want to stand alone.

There are several kinds of dances, and the one that Adele will attend next at cousin Angli's house is a private dance that requires an invitation letter.

The autonomy of this kind of dance is relatively large, and the activities and content are arranged by the host family. The scale of the dance can be large or small.

There is also a public dance, which is usually held publicly during celebrations or festivals, hosted by famous local people, and held in public halls or certain large clubs.There is no invitation letter, regardless of status, as long as you are not a slave, you can participate after spending money. Of course, the amount of money is also different. *

Every father is obliged to pay a few francs in advance for his daughter's entrance fee during the social season, so that his daughter can enter the social circle. Adele has such a meeting in the public hall in Paris hosted by the Baron's family It will be one of her most official appearances this season.

However, since you can attend as long as you pay a fee, public dances may have different participants than private dances, and their social significance is more important than the dance itself, because——

Two parties who met at a private ball need to be re-introduced by a famous enough intermediary in public, in the presence of as many witnesses as possible, so that they can officially meet in a social sense.

Therefore, although Adele can participate in many private balls, large and small, she must show up at least once at a public ball to let as many people know as possible and get to know as many people as possible.

Even if a considerable part of the people who participated in the public ball were not even qualified to dance with her, she wanted to let others know her. She didn't need to know the common people like those clerks, but she had to take this opportunity to recognize all the people in the upper class, And dance with most of the fine men.

"So, I'm likely..." Adele froze subtly, "There was no rest for the entire game?"

"Maybe there's a little bit of a break at halftime, but there's no question that at the Easter Ball you have to dance both on and off the court."

"According to the etiquette," Mrs. Semantha and her smiled decently, but the strength of the words remained unchanged, "If you reject a certain gentleman, then you basically cannot accept other gentlemen in the next half. invitation, or it would be a disrespect to the gentleman you refuse."

Mrs. Semantha is a lady who is no longer good-looking but has an excellent temperament. She has a different kind of gentleness and tolerance when she smiles. If her husband had not died young and she had been widowed for many years, Adele believed that she would be very popular.

She held her hand, led her to relearn dance steps a little bit, and gently corrected her mistakes, but in terms of quality requirements, she was not as gentle as her attitude, on the contrary, she had high requirements.

"But if you're on the dance floor and you're just sitting and watching, it's also a faux pas and an offense to the hosts who are throwing the party. Ladies who are not invited to dance and just watch, especially young Little girls are easily regarded as 'unattractive' and 'unpopular', and for a woman of the right age, once such a label is attached, it is extremely detrimental to their marriage."

"So, even if you are really tired, you should take an excuse to take a break at the right time, and try not to stop at the beginning of the dance." Mrs. Semantha smiled, "There is a little trick, you can Choose slow tunes to dance in, rather than keep up with every fast-paced dance."

"There is also an unspoken rule that is barely usable. If you have a suitable and close friend and female partner present, when you don't want to dance with the man in front of you and it is unbearable, you can do it in the middle of the end of the first half of the dance. You can ask your female companion to find an excuse to call you over during the changing formation and adjustment time—" Semantha blinked with her, and the wrinkles at the end of the eyes seemed to reveal a gentleness with a little wit.

"In this way, you can end this song in a less rude manner. As long as you find a good reason, neither the male dance partner nor the organizer will have any bad opinion of you, but remember, you must at least By the time the segment is over, there is absolutely no way to throw your hands off the dance floor when everyone is dancing, that would be a real social disaster."

"If your male partner agrees with you enough, you can even stop in the middle of the dance song, switch some steps casually to relax, and then catch up with the main force. A song is even more than an hour long, in this For a period of time, you can talk to your male partner as much as you want, although a prom will only dance up to two tunes with the same gentleman, but you can choose a long enough track, and remember that it is best not to dance with the same man Dancing, unless it's something you and your family like but are not engaged to, and only have a tacit understanding."

Adele just practiced like this all afternoon, dancing non-stop, single, double, and various repertoire changes.

The piano player changed from Armand to the butler and then to the former maid Lily, but she was always the dancer.

During the period, Alexander came over to watch. Seeing that she was jumping more and more painful, and she was getting weaker and weaker, he couldn't help showing a tangled and sympathetic expression. After learning that she couldn't eat snacks, he was shocked.

In order not to irritate her, he could only leave with the creme brulee himself.

Adele couldn't help gritting her teeth, and had to show a social smile when Semantha looked over.

"It's okay." Mrs. Semantha finally said, "Finally, I have some appearance."

Hearing this, Adele let out a long sigh of relief, and Jenny and Mary each supported her, let her lie on the soft cushion and rub her legs.

Adele just felt that her legs were no longer her own.

"About your outfits at the ball held by Mrs. Angli three days later, I have made some arrangements for you. Please come and try them on when you have time."

Before she could recover, Armand stepped forward with a smile, nodded to each other with Mrs. Semantha, and successfully completed the handover.

Mrs. Semantha smiled and retreated. Adele knew that she had to discuss with the housekeeper about the piano and repertoire to be used for practice, and then report to the Duke about her daily learning progress. The only luck is that her piano is not used. Learning from scratch, at least there is still a talent that can be used.

Adele felt nothing but darkness in front of her eyes.

You must know that the clothes are cumbersome nowadays, including makeup, many people get up and dress up until noon, and it takes several hours to finish tidying up before they can eat directly.

"This is your first appearance, and countless people's eyes are on the Duke's Mansion. Even if you are naturally beautiful, you can't slack off."

The author has something to say:

The content about public dances and private dances comes from the Internet. What I read is the Chinese version translated from English. Wait", here I converted the value into francs myself.

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