gentleman's manor

Mrs. Jenny and her children have just been expelled from the house, and the Vincent family also received a shocking news.

"My lord, some sheriffs are waiting outside, saying they want to take Miss Catherine away." The housekeeper said, "They said that someone reported that Miss Catherine had a child out of wedlock."

"Nonsense! This is slander!" Vincent said loudly, as if speaking loudly to cover up his inner fear, because his face instantly turned pale.

"What should I do now!" Claudia complained anxiously: "I said earlier that she is a scourge, and I should send her away as soon as possible, but you just didn't listen, now it's all over!"

In fact, on the day Vincent learned that Catherine had a child first before marriage, he got angry with Catherine after returning home, and thought about hiding her, and then secretly gave birth to a child.But Mrs. Jenny holds a letter from Catherine acknowledging her pregnancy, and Vincent is afraid that if she doesn't cooperate with her, she will spread the matter around.On the contrary, after Catherine and Joseph get married, this matter will naturally subside.That's why he left Catherine at home with a fluke.

"Let's sneak her out quickly through the back door," Vincent said.

However, before he could give an order, several sheriffs broke in. Regardless of the servants' obstruction, they searched for Catherine everywhere, and immediately took her away when they found it.

Catherine was still confused, and protested loudly: "Why are you arresting me? Father, father!"

"You can't arrest her, let's talk, I'll give you money, you can do whatever you want." Vincent tried to bribe the sheriffs.

However, the magistrate, who was so corrupt on weekdays that he wanted to scratch the ground, became a law-abiding public official today. Without any hesitation, he directly grabbed this beautiful lady into the carriage outside the door.

"Father, save me, save me!" Catherine cried out anxiously.

Vincent could only watch all this helplessly, and finally fell down in front of the porch in embarrassment.

Miss Catherine's love affair spread throughout Kent within a day, and she was sued by her own maid. Because she conceived out of wedlock, the court sentenced her to a fine of ten pounds and a month's hard labor.Ten pounds was only a small amount, and even the necklace on Catherine's neck was worth far more than that.But a rich lady couldn't solve the matter in private, instead she was brought to court and made known to the world.Smart people understand that this young lady probably offended someone, so she got revenge.

The impact of this incident was unprecedented. Vincent's two sons-in-law successively announced that they would sever ties with the Vincent family, and then Mr. Constantine, who had just made an engagement with his youngest daughter, also announced the annulment of the engagement.Such a blow made Vincent's family gloomy, and they became rats on the street.

Vincent spent a lot of effort to step into the upper class. He married his eldest daughter to a poor baron and spent tens of thousands of pounds. He married his second daughter to a lawyer and continued to spend on his son-in-law's political career.After the scandal broke out, although the sons-in-law could not divorce the daughters, they could sever ties with the Vincents.As a result, all previous efforts have been in vain, and if you want to enter the circle of high society, you should not think about it within ten years.Because when people mention him, the first thing that comes to mind is that he has a slut woman, conceived before marriage, and was punished with hard labor.

Claudia beats and beats at home, curses Catherine, and then writes to her ex-fiancé, hoping that the other party will change his mind, after all, he once said that he likes her.But Constantine sent someone to say in front of Vincent: "The marriage has been cancelled. Mr. Constantine, as a noble owner of the manor, has an extremely dignified status. Your daughter Catherine has made such a despicable act." You can’t blame my master for announcing the marriage, so please stop writing to our master, Miss Claudia.”

Claudia was completely desperate. As an unmarried girl in the family, no matter how much dowry she had, a decent gentleman family would not want her.She cursed her sister loudly like crazy: "It's her! She ruined me! I won't let her go!"

The Vincent family lost face in London, and they were judged and judged as soon as they went out. It was impossible to continue living there.So a few days later, their family moved to Ireland.Before leaving, Vincent left a house and a sum of money to Catherine, who was still in labor. He did not intend to let Catherine go with them, because he had already announced that he had severed relations with her, but she was his biological daughter after all. , so he was reluctant to let her live on the street.But Vincent didn't know that Claudia quickly sold the house behind his back and took the money.

……

All the current assets of Quint Manor were auctioned off at the auction house.It's a real auction, where items of furniture are laid out and bids are called for.

I was at the auction site and bought almost every piece of auction item, and then these items were sent back to Quint Manor one by one.

Many people at the scene were amazed by my generosity.

I replied to them: "Father is incompetent and owed a large amount of money during his lifetime, but as the heir of Quint Manor, I cannot just sit and watch the family estate being auctioned and remain indifferent. I must make up for my father's fault. So I sell Lost part of India's property and used it to redeem the property of the manor."

People were moved by my behavior, offered to give up the auction items, and did not bid with me. Some people even bought the items and then gave them to me, praising my behavior of maintaining the family honor.

In fact, this is still a play, but I didn't expect it to attract people's praise.

Back then, we took advantage of Dean's blindness and asked him to sign a loan. The so-called Edwin Ethan didn't exist at all.This is Edward's old trick, using various government resources to fake a person who does not exist at all, but he has a complete social relationship, but he lives overseas all the year round and rarely comes back to the UK, so everything about him is handed over to The lawyer's handling, of course, also includes this debt collection.

I bought both the lawyer and the clerk that day, the clerk got [-] pounds, and the two lawyers got [-] pounds each, so they signed their names as witnesses without hesitation.In this way, they are all accomplices, so I am not afraid that they will betray me.

The auction is a show, it is equivalent to transferring the property from my left hand to my right hand. There is no loss at all during the period, but it is an indispensable process.At the end of the auction, all of Quint's property was realized for nearly [-] pounds, but the dead Dean owed [-] pounds to Mr. 'Ethan', and the bank's [-] pounds of national debt was not enough to repay all the debts.But Mr. 'Ethan' could only suffer. Dean was dead, and his children had no obligation to repay his debts during his lifetime. Of course, there was not a penny left to return to Joseph, who inherited all the current assets.

At this moment, Mrs. Jenny and her children officially declared bankruptcy and became paupers with nothing.

I returned to the manor again, this time as the owner.

Summertime at Quint Hall is very beautiful, in fact it has never been so beautiful to my eyes.

The eight-mile road through the estate was dotted with many farmsteads, and there were several fine groves and small reedy depressions along the way.When I stopped by the fields on my horse, I was greeted by local farmers, some of whom I had known since I was a child, and who are now my sharecroppers.

"Master Constantine, I'm so glad to see you, you're finally back."

"What young master, it should be called master."

"Congratulations on inheriting the manor..."

I led the horse and chatted with them for a long time before stepping into the manor.

Both sides of the manor building were already full of servants waiting for me. The manor housekeeper bowed to me and said, "Welcome master home."

Then the other servants also saluted me. Their movements were in unison, obviously well trained.Mrs. Jenny is very concerned about these red tapes, because she was born as an inferior person, so she especially likes others to bow down to her.

I didn't get off the horse immediately, but looked at the butler: "Why haven't you left yet?"

In the farmland just now, the tenants complained to me about the housekeeper promoted by Mrs. Jenny. I heard that he often took advantage of his position to be harsh on the tenants' food, which is far behind when Butler Simon was there.

The butler glanced at me secretly, and said stammeringly, "I...I am the housekeeper of the manor...I..."

"So from now on you're not." I said, "You've been fired."

"My lord, please give me a chance, I will work hard." The butler said anxiously.

My horse suddenly snorted loudly and sprayed the butler all over his face. Behind him, other servants laughed, and I laughed too, and teased him: "You can go to your former master, they Maybe a new job for you." Then I stopped looking at him and dismounted and walked through the gate.

Before I arrived, Hughes had brought my luggage in a carriage.Hughes was very excited about my inheritance of Quint Manor. After all, the status of the servants in the pastor's house and the servants in the big manor is completely different.Because the master's status is noble, the servants will also be honored, and their self-conscious status will be improved accordingly.

The housekeeper, Selena, is still alive. She is a very serious and indifferent person, not as loyal as Simon, so she will not give affection to the master, and only regards this place as a simple workplace.So Mrs. Jenny tolerated her and didn't replace her like Simon.

At this time, she bowed to me expressionlessly, and then waited for my instructions.

"For the next few days, you will temporarily act as the butler of the entire manor, and all the servants will be under your management until the new butler arrives." I ordered.

"Yes." She still bowed to me expressionlessly, then turned and backed away.

I guess if I said 'you're fired' she would probably have walked away without any complaints.

A manor with nearly twenty servants could do without a butler, but Hughes didn't have much education, so he obviously couldn't take on such a heavy responsibility as a butler.

Simon is more than 70 years old this year, and of course it is impossible to travel long distances back from faraway Scotland.The Simon family has been our housekeeper for generations. It was separated from Viscount Constantine's house back then. His son was supposed to be the next Quinte butler, but Mrs. Jenny stepped in, and the family had to go to another Find a livelihood.Later, Simon's son found a job as a housekeeper in Murray County, Scotland. From Simon's correspondence with me, I learned that his son is very trusted by the current owner and has become a big housekeeper, managing the owner's estate. Naturally, I was too embarrassed to ask him to come back and work for me again.

In order to thank Simon for his help back then, after inheriting Quint Manor, I wrote to him specifically to inform him of this, and attached a check for one thousand pounds to the letter.But Simon returned the thousand pounds intact, and only expressed his sorrow for William's death in a letter, and urged me to find a well-matched lady to marry as soon as possible, and then give birth to an heir.

I'm sorry for Simon's indoctrination, and I'm afraid I won't be able to satisfy the old butler.

When I was about to report to the manor looking for a new steward, Edward sent me directly a few servants, at the head of which was an elderly gentleman, obviously educated, who was obviously a steward.

"Mr. Bruce is an experienced butler, and it is perfect for him to be responsible for the management of rent collection and the management of the estate." Edward said.

Since Edward recommended it so much, I nodded and let him take up the job.Unexpectedly, this Mr. Bruce acted resolutely. In just one day, he replaced more than half of the servants in the manor, and almost all the servants in the house. He stipulated detailed work content for each servant and arranged them in an orderly manner. orderly.

After the servants were arranged, he came to me with all the servants: "Sir, do you want to choose a personal servant?"

When he asked this question, all the servants in front of him straightened their chests and looked at me expectantly, among which Hughes seemed the most excited.The ranks of servants are also clearly distinguished. Not only are the upper-class male servants paid more than the lower-class male servants, but they can also direct other servants to work.Hughes has served in my house for several years and is very familiar with me. He is obviously looking forward to the position of valet, because the valet of the master is No.1 under the butler.

I was about to tell Hughes to do it, but Edward, who was reading the newspaper, suddenly put down the newspaper and said, "You have just inherited the manor, why bother to decide everything in such a hurry." After speaking, he gave Bruce a look.

Bruce froze for a moment, then without waiting for my order, he turned around and went on to do other things.

I stared at Edward with wide eyes, what's going on?

Edward shrugged, pretending to look down at the newspaper.

At night, he said to me in a coaxing tone: "You better not arrange for a personal servant, otherwise it will be inconvenient for us to meet."

"What an excuse, you don't have a valet yourself, and you don't think it's inconvenient. Besides, I'm the owner of the manor now. It's strange that I don't have a valet. Others will make irresponsible remarks about me." I said .

"My valet is an old man. Look at the valets in your manor. They are all young people. The valet needs to help you dress and take a bath. I don't want others to do things that I haven't done." He Said confidently.

"Then I'll hire someone older." I discussed with him.

He squinted his eyes, trying to get away with it: "Why do you need a manservant, I'll just serve you." Then he groped me irregularly.

"That's really an honor. When I go out as a guest, will Mr. Edward also serve you?" I sighed, thinking that this guy's hands are too long. He has the final say on everything around him.

The author has something to say: it is against the law for a woman to give birth out of wedlock, and if she is nosy and reports to the magistrate, she will be sent to court.But like Mrs. Jenny, she secretly hides after pregnancy, and she will be fine after giving birth, because there is no evidence to prove that she gave birth before she was married.So we read in novels that many illegitimate children are thrown into orphanages, but the mothers of the children continue to marry without any pressure, because the children are born secretly, so no one knows.