Granville's estate

Although he changed to an unfamiliar environment, Louis still slept relatively peacefully with good friends by his side.When he woke up the next day, he took his pocket watch with sleepy eyes and looked at it. It was almost nine o'clock. This surprised him, who always woke up around seven o'clock, and hurried to push his friends.

"Al, it's nine o'clock! We got up late."

Alrede fell into a drowsy sleep, with black curly hair messily sticking to his face, he just grunted at his friend's urging, and shrank back into the depths of the warm eiderdown quilt.

"It's only nine o'clock, Louie! Why get up so early and sleep a little longer!"

Seeing that his friend was really unwilling to get up, Louis had no choice but to leave the bed by himself. He opened the curtain and took a look outside. From the window on the second floor, he could see the roof ridges of houses in the distance.The sun has begun to brighten, but this area is still relatively quiet, and the sound of carriages passing by can hardly be heard.

The interior of No. 79 St. George Street was also very quiet. When Louis stood by the stairs and looked towards the first floor, he didn't see Mary, but saw a teenager with bare feet stepping on two stacked chairs, wiping the living room. Dust in the cracks in the marble relief above the fireplace.

The boy was about thirteen or fourteen years old, undersized, with brown hair, wearing very old clothes, which should be specially used for rough work; the chair he folded and stepped on was carefully removed The velvet smocks were worn so as not to leave marks, and it seemed that the owner of the house did not want to realize that the new furniture had been used as stepping stones without his knowledge.

After observing for a while, Louis realized that this boy should be her younger brother Joseph whom Mary had mentioned yesterday, so it was easy to understand why Mary was so grateful to Alred—boys at this age really can't do much heavy work , Even if you go to the factory and are so tired that you fall asleep every day, you may not be able to get much wages.

Joseph maintained the balance on the two chairs in a posture that made people sweat for him. He hummed a ditty tune and rubbed the reliefs very easily, until he found Louis on the stairs on the second floor. looking at him.

When he suddenly found Louis, Joseph was obviously frightened—he shifted his whole body, and almost fell off the chair with his foot in the air; but it only took him a second, and he was That dangerous balance was maintained.

"Dear Mr. Farentin, good morning!"

The boy showed a big smile to Louis upstairs, showing his white teeth like porcelain: "You got up so early! Please wait a moment, I'll check if the hot water is ready for you, and I'll be back soon Bring you face wash and towels!"

As he spoke, he continued to wipe the dust for a few times, and then he jumped down as if nothing had happened, moved the two stacked chairs back to their original positions and put on the overalls. Calm, as if those chairs being used as stepping stones were as common a thing as eating and drinking.

A cunning kid who likes to play tricks——Louis probably made a judgment on him in his heart.

Joseph came back about 10 minutes after he ran out. He brought hot water and towels for washing his face, and ran back and forth very attentively.

Not long after, Mary also appeared. This girl was wearing a very plain old cotton skirt with the sleeves half rolled up, as if she was working just now.

"Mr. Farentin, you got up so early! Please wait for a while, breakfast will be ready soon."

When Joseph said to Louis, "You got up so early", Louis could still use it as an excuse when the kid was caught playing tricks, but Mary's demeanor and tone did not seem to be joking with him, which made Louis feel a little bit I wonder if I have misread the time.

"Isn't it already nine o'clock? It's not early at this time, Mary?"

"Before ten o'clock is too early, sir!" Joseph, who was tidying up the towels, perhaps hoping to restore Louis' first impression of him, interjected, "Mr. If you get up before 10:30, if you went to a dance the day before, it will be even later the next day! But in Paris, everyone is like this, so it’s not surprising at all.”

Louis glanced at Joseph, and that look clearly said, "That's why you dare to treat his furniture like that before he wakes up"!

As if he didn't notice it at all, Joseph smiled and picked up the washbasin filled with hot water and left.

The breakfast prepared by Mary for Louis was not small. There were a few small Breton cakes from yesterday and a few pieces of dry bread cut into squares and spread with peach jam, a cup of coffee with cream, and a piece of fresh fruit. And fresh eggs and butter, which surprised Louis a little.

"I think we ate all the dessert last night," he said.

"Ah, I took some of them away yesterday before I put them on the table," said Mary, arranging the silver for him. "If Mr. Alred had breakfast, I'd It’s enough to prepare bread and coffee for him, but I think it’s hard for you to come here, and it’s not good to entertain you too simply—I just sent Joseph to buy fruits and eggs this morning. I hope you Don't be disgusted."

When Louis sat at the dining table, the concierge, Father Tonsar, came in. He held a folded newspaper with the tips of his thumb and forefinger, and his face was full of disgust that even a bushy beard couldn't hide. .

"This is for you, Monsieur Farentin."

Saying this, Papa Tonsal threw the newspaper into Louie's hands rudely, like throwing away a rotten potato that had to be picked up.

The newspaper thrown to the table gave off a pungent smell of inferior ink, so strong that the unsuspecting Louis sneezed.

"My God! Father Tongsar, why did you give this to me?"

"I don't know about that. A newspaper boy ran over early this morning and stuffed this thing outside my concierge. He just said, 'This is for the gentleman from yesterday' and ran away. I thought that our husband had never ordered this kind of thing, so it only makes sense that it is for you."

Louis immediately thought of the newsboy who took his twenty centimes but ran away after only giving him a newspaper: "Uh, ah, I know what's going on, so let's put it here first, I'll Wait and see."

Hearing his request, Father Tongsar gave Louis a very weird look, and muttered, "So you like reading 'Richelieu Journal'?"

"What did you say? Father Tonsar?"

He spoke so quickly and incoherently that Louis could not hear him at all, but at this moment Mary came up, and she only glanced at the headline of the newspaper, and picked it up very lightly, and rolled it up in her hand. .

"Sir, if you want to read newspapers, you can wait in the study room. There are not only pictorials and books ordered by Mr. Alred, but also newspapers published by various major newspapers. Father Tongsar, I will cut the bread for you It's in your basket, go get it yourself."

After Mary finished speaking, she took the newspaper away without waiting for Louis to answer. Not only that, but she just gave a hinting look, and Father Tongsar obediently followed her and left the restaurant.

Louis was at a loss until he had finished his breakfast, and in the study on the second floor, he dug out the newspaper that he bought at ten times the price yesterday—maybe it was because it was late last night that this newspaper was kept from Mary. I took it down and put it in the study——after looking at it, I belatedly realized what Father Tongsar had misunderstood.

The name of the newspaper was "Journal de Richelieu", and the first page looked very normal, with the headline "Count de Marini Appointed Ambassador to Turin, Will Depart Today" in capital letters, with a picture next to it A portrait of a handsome male aristocrat; but turning the paper over, Louis sees the headline "Thirty Underwear Stolen from Vicomtesse de Terrell in Fire", accompanied by a disheveled A flirtatious print of a woman escaping from a fire, a closer look at the model in the painting shows that she is coquettish rather than fleeing for her life.

"..."

Louis took this four-page street tabloid, three of which were about the gossip of various aristocrats, and the prints and pictures were bold and unusually large-scale street tabloids. In between, I didn't know what to say.

—Paris, are even the newspapers so bold?

Alred didn't wake up again until after ten o'clock. When he found that his friend was not by his side, he immediately ran out of the bedroom and looked around.

"Louis, Louie! Where are you?"

"I'm here." Louis answered him in the study.

"Ah, that's great. I almost thought I was dreaming when I saw you yesterday." Alred said, and went back to his bedroom.

When Alred washed his face in a hurry under the service of Joseph, took a random piece of bread and walked into the study, he saw Louis sitting by the window basking in the warm sunshine from a thick "Fashion Pictorial" Ri looked up and looked at him impassively.

"Don't you even sit down to eat?" Louis said, "If the Earl sees you like this, I can't imagine what he will think."

Alred, who was eating the bread, choked suddenly and almost choked on himself.

"You've learned badly, Louis, why are you saying this so early in the morning?" Alred took a bite of the bread angrily, and quibbled, "Eating breakfast standing up helps digestion, it's common sense."

"It seems to be common sense that only Parisians have. I doubt it is because they often eat too much dinner and too little breakfast."

"Okay, okay, anyway, I'll finish eating soon." Alred said, finishing the bread in his hand in two or three strokes, "I'll help you pick out some clothes later, we'll go to Boulogne together in the afternoon Go for a walk in the forest."

"Are you going to see that Miss Margaret this afternoon?—I have my own clothes, and I don't need yours."

"That's not okay. If my clothes don't suit you, we'll go to the Royal Palace first. There are shops where you can buy ready-made clothes directly." Alred decided very arbitrarily, "My dear, those people in Paris It's all snobbery, and I don't want my sweet little Louis to be picked on by those people because the shirt is not the latest style."