The Happy Life of a Duchess

"Hahahahaha..."

"Quickly say a few words, or our Jiaojiao 'First Beauty' will get angry."

"What beauty is she? She is not as beautiful as our Adele, nor as beautiful as those two Miss Montyjos before."

"The younger one, the younger sister of the two sisters, is really good looking. I remember you like her very much." The lady in the green dress looked at Mrs. Castellana, who nodded yes.

"Yes, Miss Eugenie is indeed beautiful and lovely, and she is also very smart. If I have such a beauty as my daughter, I will be happy every day. It's a pity that I don't have a daughter. But I have a new heart now, isn't it ours? Adele?" Mrs. Castellana looked at Adele with a smile, but was interrupted by Mrs. Dressel.

"That's not necessarily the case. I like Adele very much. I'll introduce our family to you later." Mrs. Dressel smiled kindly at Adele, "you can dance and talk about young people Talking about the topic, you are such a clever girl, I feel at ease when I see you, much better than the baron's family."

"Oh, my lady..." Mariana was not too impressed with the youngest son of the Dressel family. She thought that Adele could choose a gentleman who was richer and could inherit the title and family property, instead of an unemployed and unemployed gentleman. The youngest son with a large income, so she took the call for Adele with a smile, for fear that she would just accept it.

"Which family's ladies are not better than those of those two families? They can't move their feet when they see a man..."

All the ladies just laughed and didn't continue this topic anymore, they just exchanged tacit mocking eyes with each other.

Adele still doesn't know which one of the "two families" they call Baron Bernard's family is, and the aforementioned family that made a fortune from a mistress is also unknown.She could only look at Mariana with a slightly confused expression, but the other party just shook her head slightly, telling her not to ask about this matter now.

But after this incident, Adele also figured out something a little bit.

Although most of the wives seem to have a good relationship, even if they are joking with each other, they don't seem to take it seriously.

But at the same time, they also have a certain clear boundary between each other, that is, the so-called inside and outside circles are clearly separated.

Baroness Madame Bernard seems to want to integrate into their circle, but she is a little confused and irrelevant. Although Adele is a newcomer, she seems to have been accepted to a certain extent. Although Marianne was there to help, but more, she guessed it was the effect of her good status.

Just as Marianne hinted to her before, just because Margaret the Camellia was not taken into Bailu Manor to become her god-sister, the nobles don't have to worry about it when interacting with their family.

If you only have a few lovers, then for the husbands or sons of most of the wives present, this kind of thing is not uncommon at all. Almost all of them have such a small lover or courtesans. Can open one eye and close one eye.

But if you originally just raised a lover, but now you suddenly want to marry her or adopt her as a daughter, then the nature will change subtly——

The biggest difference is actually whether they will give their family name to the courtesan.

For nobles, the surname is a very noble and important thing that needs to be maintained by all members. For the head and heir of a family, the reputation associated with the surname or other things are very important things.

Giving a noble surname to a social butterfly with a bad reputation is undoubtedly an insult, but Adele is also very clear on the other hand, it also depends on the situation.

For example, a certain king once fell in love with a prostitute of a certain status. In order to let her have enough status to enter the palace, he even arranged for her to marry a certain nobleman and become a noble lady. Although everyone scoffed at this, there is no doubt that During the time when she was favored, no one would make her unhappy in front of her, and although the family who married her had a mediocre reputation, the king also got the benefits. It is an honor to "share a woman" with the king. *

Adele's doubts were finally answered at the end of the dance.

She finally understood the greatest reason why Mrs. Armand Ruede could be her housekeeper.

Although Mrs. Lu De has not participated in similar social activities with the hostess for a long time, she still has an advantage in information.

"'The First Beauty'?" Mrs. Lu De couldn't maintain a serious expression at the ball, and she had a little smile on her face, answering Adele who asked curiously while taking a break.

"That should refer to Miss Sophie du Barry, who was praised by Baron Bernard and Mr. Bonn du Barry as 'the most beautiful woman in Paris'."

Seeing that Adele was still curious, she could understand, so she explained a few more words.

"A few years ago, the famous beauty in the Paris circle was Mademoiselle Eugenie Montijo from Spain, but after the young Montijo sisters returned with their mother, there were no new outstanding beauties in Paris at that time, and Mademoiselle du Barry Just when it was time to socialize and plan a marriage, Mr. Baron as the uncle and Mr. Barry as the elder brother promoted their younger sister, Miss Sophie Barry. Under the flattery of some gentlemen, she had such beauty Famous, and after that, it was indeed used to carry out activities outside.”

"However, some wives have been privately dissatisfied with her reputation because they look down on her origin, but because there really is no more beautiful woman than her, who is praised by men, they have to swallow this breath for the time being."

"What's the problem with Miss Barry's background?" Adele asked bluntly. Mrs. Lude sighed by covering her lips with a handkerchief, and then said softly.

"When the old Baron Bernard was alive, he planned for Mrs. Barry, his daughter who was married to Mr. Bonn Barry. I don't know if the Barry family knew about this matter, but the final result is that our Majesty the King took a fancy to it. Mrs. Barry and let her be his mistress, this incident is well known in the circle, and many families despise it, and because of this... to a certain extent, it has affected the reputation of the ladies of the Barry family, Sophie Barry Miss is that younger sister, and she already has a sister above her, which affected her original marriage. Fortunately, the older Miss Barry managed to make a plan and finally got herself married, but Miss Sophie Barry's marriage... ..."

"This is probably the reason why they had to plan a reputation for her as a beauty. Now it seems that not only the ladies of the Barry family were affected, but even the ladies of Baron Bernard's family were also affected..." Lu Mrs. De frowned slightly in disgust, and quickly let go.

"Unless the ladies of the two families choose the same way as Mrs. Barry, or become well-born courtesans in the upper class... Otherwise, it may not be so easy to just marry into an innocent family."

"Once it is done, it will be difficult to get rid of the bad reputation. People in the original circle will definitely not accept them. Now it seems that they can't let go of the reputation resources of the original circle. Now they are willing to associate with them. Almost, the wives of those families are not too 'clean', since they are unwilling, they can only make more plans..."

Having said that, Adele finally understood.

This was the first time she knew such a thing so straightforwardly. She had no contact with Miss Sophie Barry, but it sounded like she was worthy of sympathy.

The ball was coming to an end, Adele glanced around and saw that Mr. Duval, who was painting over there, finally put down his paintbrush and asked the waiter to help clean up his things. She was a little excited and thought it was just a good opportunity to talk to "Mr. Smart" , although she has no purpose.

She knew that the other party couldn't really use all the time of the dance to paint, just like he still danced a few times in the middle, played games with the gentlemen and participated in part of the social life during the break, he just found an excuse to hide most of the Time, but it will not be criticized by others, so such a cautious person will inevitably socialize for a short period of time before the end.

"Mr. Duval." When Adele approached, a smile appeared on his face immediately.

"Let me guess, are you here to see the painting?"

"Well... I think I'm more suitable to be the one who supervises your painting progress, what do you think?" Adele pretended to be contemplative, "If you are like Mr. Da Vinci, you can paint for a month or even longer , isn’t my sister at a big loss?”

"Reminder?" Mr. Duval showed a little bit of troubled dark color very face-saving, "Then I really hope that my poor progress will not anger you, after all, this is the one thing I am most afraid of."

Adele laughed along, and Duval took the initiative to show her the work sideways.

This time, the lines are all drawn.

Adele can now be sure that among the couples of young men and women on the dance floor in the picture, the woman in the pair she saw before must be her, and the styles of clothes and jewelry match, and the man did not draw carefully , like Armand.

After all, it can be clearly judged from the painting that women's clothes are much more careful in hooking than men's, and there are more iconic shawls, hats or different styles of skirts than men's.

Therefore, it is true that women in the map are better identified than men. Except for Mr. Ang Li who is the host in the center, other men are difficult to judge.

"So, is this me?" Adele pointed to that one.

"Yes, I hope you don't mind." He nodded, his eyes fell on her face, as if observing her reaction.

Adele laughed at once, turned her finger slightly to the side, and pointed at the man dancing with her:

"So, where is this next to me? Is it Monsieur Armand, or... what about you?"

The author has something to say:

The example in the article refers to the matter between Louis XV and the famous prostitute Jeanne. The receiver at that time was the Earl of Barry, and the mistress was the later Madame du Barry.

Here the original character and family use this name, which has nothing to do with history, and only has a little symbolic meaning (it can also be used as a small easter egg), so don't get confused.