The Happy Life of a Duchess

When the warm sun shone in through the gap in the curtains, Adele finally woke up from the slumber.

She stared at the gorgeous dark green shading curtain embroidered with gold thread and red thread above her head, and slowly realized that she had returned to Bailu Manor, the duke's mansion.

She took a few breaths to wake up her thoughts.

She has just arrived here, and as a newcomer who doesn't know the situation, she doesn't want to give everyone the impression of being lazy.

She barely got up from the soft and comfortable bed.

It was still a shockingly luxurious room. She didn't know much about furniture, but she could simply judge that the wood, carving, and gold-plated objects were all very expensive.

At this time, porcelain and silk are still rare luxury goods, and it can be seen that it took a lot of effort to use a large area as a bed curtain and quilt for her.

I slept all afternoon in a daze yesterday, and I didn’t see Mr. Duke until dinner time, nor did I see my illegitimate son Alexander Juradi and his god-sister Marguerite Gautier, who were supposed to come over.

She barely got up for dinner last night and asked one more question. At that time, the old butler explained that the younger brother would come over tomorrow afternoon. The god-sister did not know the situation for the time being, and she might come back with the Duke——

This is even more exasperating.

Even her own daughter did not enjoy the preferential treatment of picking someone up in person.

Maybe it was because her emotions were too obvious at the time. Afterwards, the housekeeper Armand explained to her for the first time that this kind of thing will not happen, but they may go well, but the Duke will definitely not pick her up in person.

As for why the Duke didn't show up at the dinner yesterday, she also asked Jenny to find out. He went to one of his lovers, Miss Ronnie. Recently, he still trusts this young lover very much.

According to the servants at the house, when he heard that the princess was coming back, the Duke was very excited at first. When he received the letter, he even laughed happily in the study, and many servants heard it.

But then he became very anxious. He personally arranged for people to decorate the room, not to mention, he wanted to give advice on how to decorate the room himself, but it was because his move of moving everything to the room was inappropriate, so he was persuaded by the old housekeeper to go back. Well, the day before she came back, he bought a British doll for her, and secretly put it on her bedside.

Adele was a little surprised when she saw it yesterday.At that time, the doll was covered by the bed curtain, so she didn't notice it. When she turned her head and saw a blonde doll on her bed, she was almost frightened.

This doll is the only thing she put away yesterday, she is not too young to need this, and this doll seems to her to be rough in workmanship, it seems to have a kind of magical power that becomes more and more infiltrating, I don't know if it is her messy video I have seen too much.

It turned out that she was about to come back yesterday, but Mr. Duke found an excuse to go out instead.

Everyone didn't think he could have any important things in the afternoon, but it was rare for the duke who had gradually recovered his health to play until eleven or twelve in the middle of the night, and it was more like intentional.

Adele struggled for a while, thinking about his psychology randomly, but before he himself appeared, everything was useless.

After washing, she opened the curtains.

"Not bad."

The window of this room was facing the front yard of the manor, and the beautiful scenery looked pleasing to the eye.

Today's sunshine is very comfortable, and the royal blue velvet curtains with flowers and birds embroidered with gold thread seem to have a bit of warmth.

Everything is in order.

It was still early, and the morning air had not dissipated. There were only a few sporadic gardeners doing final care in the front yard garden.

The front yard is where the carriages of various families come in. It is facing the gate, which is one of the most important facades of the entire Bailu Manor. Even the fountain at the gate must ensure that the water quality is clear.

Adele squinted her eyes for a while, then returned to the dressing table.

After a hasty scan yesterday, she had time to see what was arranged for her.

Not to mention the powder makeup that she arranges by herself, the old and new powder boxes are obviously different, but she will definitely not use those things that may contain lead.

She took all the so-called high-value items away, and looked at the dressing table. It seemed to be made of real gold and silver, and the carvings were also very beautiful. Not to mention the glass mirror, it was only when I opened the drawer that I was shocked.

Earrings, necklaces, rings and other accessories are placed in different drawers according to different categories, and each one is full.

The one in the dresser drawer is not that expensive. When she opened the desk drawer, there were two layers inside. The upper layer was divided into compartments, and it was still jewelry, while the lower layer was simply covered with velvet. There were cushions on which were various jewels necklaces and hair ornaments of excellent condition and weight.

The pink diamond necklace that Adele saw yesterday was also seen from the second floor of this desk drawer.

That's not all, she picked up the key from the table, and opened a small box that looked a little important and put it aside. Inside, there were at least a hundred large pearls with bright color and full shape. Dale couldn't even estimate how much such a box was worth now.

In addition to such a large box of pearls, she also saw a small box of cut gemstones that had not been processed into jewelry, and the colors were mixed. In it, she also saw a few precious yellow opals, mixed in like an ordinary round stone.

"This is really..."

Adele blinked, then closed the box and locked it again.

After putting on her makeup, Adele rang the bell to let the maid come over to help her comb her hair and put on this complicated dress.

The temperature in Paris is a little lower than that of Bagnell. Although it is spring, she still added a slightly thicker shawl outside the long skirt.

She also found a good Mary, this crying maid had good taste and skills in combing hair and dressing up, at least much better than Jenny's rough girl.

Probably eager to express her loyalty, she told Adele a lot of things. As expected, this room, including a table of jewelry, was bought by the Duke's father. He also left the key to her instead of directly giving it to her daughter. Butler Armand.

"After breakfast in a while, I want to go shopping. You can ask Armand if he can arrange for someone who knows a little bit more... I have been away from home for a long time, and I was very ill at the time, so I don't remember much. What has changed here? I don't even know."

Adele ordered after tidying herself up. She had already figured out that the original owner was basically sick and confused most of the time, and had a closed personality. He didn't even like to go out of the room, let alone socialize.

It was no surprise that she proposed to visit the manor.

Yesterday, Armand didn't agree to let Jenny go directly to the kitchen to take care of her food, but he agreed to take these two girls as assistants, and said that he would focus on teaching Jenny who didn't know the rules.

Enduring the dryness and hardness of the bread, Adele barely finished her breakfast with a small bite of bread and a mouthful of sweet soup.

"Where's father?" She looked at the butler.

"Still sleeping," the old housekeeper bowed slightly, and replied, "Mr. Duke always wakes up at one or two o'clock in the afternoon."

Adele nodded to show that she knew, and was surprised to see that it was the old housekeeper himself who led her the way and introduced the manor.

I don't know how Armand explained it to him. It seems that people in the manor are not surprised that she is a stranger to everything.

That being the case, Adele stopped pretending to be smart and pretended to understand.

The old butler's voice had a strange accent, which Adele already knew was typical of Parisians in this era.

He didn't speak fast, and when she showed a little thoughtful look, he would pause and wait just right.

This is indeed an old butler with a fine personality, and the usual smile on his face also looks very peaceful.

Bailu Manor has two large gardens, the front and the back, and there are hundreds of rooms, less than half of which are in use.

However, due to the large number of collections and other reasons, regular housekeepers will arrange for people to clean every room in the manor. A considerable number of rooms will be rearranged almost every week. When there are dances or dinners, they will also be specially arranged to In case there is no suitable accommodation for guests staying overnight.

Since the master's house currently only has the Duke and the Duchess, there are not many rooms in the master's house.

Adele is more concerned about the rooms related to her. She theoretically has three bedrooms. In addition to the one she currently lives in, there are two more. One is the one she lived in when she was a child, and the other is a spare on the third floor. .

In addition, there are several rooms dedicated to storing her clothes and tidying up with the bedroom.

"I see." Adele memorized the frequently used places, and at the same time offered to see the galleries and portraits.

There are three restaurants in the manor, and three kitchens on the first floor alone, a main kitchen, an auxiliary kitchen, and a kitchen for servants.

"Next to the gallery is the collection room, and on the other side is the studio. There is also a small studio not far from your room." The butler then reached out and opened several rooms for her.

She silently recorded the steward's introduction to the ancestors of the Juradi family, and kept all the names on the portraits in her heart, and then asked about the current kinship in the family.

For the collection of the duke and the ancestors, she just glanced at it, and today is not a good time to take a closer look.

From the collection of various portraits, porcelain, antiques, and silverware, she can vaguely tell that the family is richer than she imagined, and it is not the kind of nouveau riche with no foundation.

"This is the music room. Now that you grow up, you don't remember it. When you were young, you often played the piano here with some sisters in your wife's house."

"Piano? With my mother, and my cousin?" Adele looked at the musical instruments in the room in surprise, and the most eye-catching one was the piano with Johannes Chumpe's name on it.

"Yes, most of them are with the current Mrs. Onley, Marianna Onley, your cousin." Seeing that she was curious about the piano, the old butler introduced, "This is an 'English-style action piano', the manor There is also a 'Werner action piano' where you can practice according to the piece."

He paused just right to give Adele time to digest, and then he explained that she has a female tutor who specializes in piano, but there is currently no class schedule, and if she needs it, she can continue to study at any time.

Adele understands music and understands everything he introduces.

But it would be great if she could have a piano teacher, otherwise she was worried that she said something she shouldn't have said.

She doesn't want to be regarded as possessed by the devil or deal with the devil at all, she has no interest in doing Faust.

She continued to follow the housekeeper, passed a corner, and when she passed a room that looked a bit old, she asked curiously, "What is this room for?"

"This is for old musical instruments. There is a harpsichord and an old violin inside. They are not used much at ordinary times, but they will be easily taken care of and maintained when cleaning the manor as usual."

"Is there still a pipe organ?" Adele just asked jokingly, but the housekeeper unexpectedly nodded.

"Yes, there is a small family pipe organ from the Kavale factory in the manor," the old butler replied with certainty, "The small bellows used for the pipe organ are all in this old storage room."

"That is to say, it can't be used now?" Adele was a little curious.

Although she doesn't know how to play the organ, it doesn't stop her from wanting to practice it herself. She didn't let their children touch the church when she was in the choir, and it was too loud for children to play with. Although the family is rich, there is no need to buy a special one that takes up space and is bulky and expensive. I didn't expect there to be one in the Juradi Manor.

Seeing her curiosity, the butler immediately replied:

"I will contact the organist and repairman to come and tune it, and I will contact the teacher for you at the same time. If you are interested, it doesn't matter if you just learn it."

"Is it really possible?"

Adele smiled, she really tasted the beauty of the princess's aristocratic life.

The author has something to say:

German organist and builder Gottfried Silbermann manufactured the first German piano in 1730 based on an extremely inaccurate sketch of an Italian piano and borrowed from Christopher's invention.

Silbermann's famous apprentices are called "Twelve Disciples", and they produced two different styles of pianos, namely "Vienna-style action piano" and "English-style action piano".They have different mechanical properties and different acoustic effects, thus forming two different schools of piano production.Both genres also had a historic influence on musicians of the time. The "Viennese Action Piano" has a lighter keyboard that can play fast notes, with subtle changes in timbre, and clear timbre contrast when playing with an orchestra.This is in line with the musical needs of Mozart's gentle and singing allegro.

Johannes Chumpe was one of Silbermann's famous disciples. He came to England in 1760 and became a famous piano maker; his product is called "English-style action piano".This kind of piano feels heavier in touch, but the sound is rich and deep, which is suitable for Clementi's solid and powerful music style.Mozart and Clementi were pianists of the same reputation at the time. Due to their different playing styles, they used Viennese and English pianos with different structures. In January 1789, Mozart and Clementi held the world's first piano performance competition in the palace of the Austrian king in Vienna, which became a sensational event.This competition has played an important role in improving the status of the piano among all musical instruments.

In the 19th century, French engineer Aristide Cavaillé-Coll (1811-1899) began experimenting with factory production of pipe organs.The organs of more than 20 churches, including Saint-Denis Cathedral in Paris, Strasbourg Cathedral, and Notre-Dame de Paris, all come from Cavalier's factory.

(The above content is taken from Baidu Encyclopedia)

The content of Faust is not much to talk about. A poem written by Goethe in Germany in 1832 (the first one was published in 1808). God and the devil made a bet and practiced on the protagonist Faust. Faust overcame temptation and was finally saved by God. .