Granville's estate

"Have you made an appointment with the tailor? Do you need to order new clothes?"

Although I have never heard of the name of the Bisson tailor shop, I only need to hear the name "Rue Richelieu", and then recall the bustling area where this street is located and a series of famous shops in the central area they passed yesterday, Louis knew that this Bisson tailor shop was probably not an ordinary small tailor shop.

In other words, making clothes in this tailor shop would most likely mean misfortune for the wallet—he thought of the various shirts, vests and coats in Allaide's wardrobe, and couldn't help frowning.

"Al, don't you already have a lot of clothes?"

"I don't want to make clothes." Alred took a bite of the bread, and because of the food in his mouth, his voice was a bit vague: "I want to make clothes for you. Originally, I wanted to call the tailor in their shop Come to your door, but Bisson tailor said that if you want a tailor to come to measure, you have to wait for three days before the tailor is available; if we go to their shop, they can give you the measurement on the same day, and then it only takes two days You can get new clothes."

"Make clothes for me?" Louis felt a little unbelievable, "I don't think I have such a need, Al, why did you come up with such an idea? And you made your own decision without asking me?"

"Why don't you need it? Although I don't know the exact time yet, Madame de Bourgogne's ball is only a few days away. Ball, Louis!"

Alred had to remind his friend: "We just received the invitation from Madam yesterday, you won't forget it after you wake up from sleep, right?"

"This...Although I am very grateful that Madam is willing to invite me, I didn't plan to go in the first place!" Louis walked to the dining table and sat down, picked up a piece of white bread that had already been buttered, and tried to persuade his friend to give up This sudden thought: "I think there are so many people at the ball, the lady will not notice that I didn't go; even if she asks, you just need to say that I accidentally got caught in the rain and got sick, and there is no way to go." .”

With Louis' personality, he really has no interest in things like going to dances. Even Magon, who doesn't hold a few dances throughout the year, basically doesn't participate in this kind of event that many people are eagerly looking forward to. , There is really no way to refuse before going.Just like what he said to Alred before, he would rather stay quietly and talk with his good friends than go to a dance party where there are so many people that he doesn't even know who the dancers are dancing with.

"What nonsense, if you don't go, then I can't go either," said Allred. "If I say you can't go to the ball because you're sick, and I go, then I won't." Have you met a selfish person who abandoned a sick friend at home? Besides, this kind of dance that represents the official start of Brumaire's social season must be very grand. If you are not in Paris, it is fine. Miss this opportunity?"

It makes sense to say so, Louis hesitated, but when he thought that Paris was no smaller than Magon, according to what Alred said before, if he wanted to go to the ball, he needed to prepare brand new costumes, which would definitely cost a lot of money. For large sums of money, he hesitated again.

Alrede guessed what he was thinking, and he winked at Louis: "Anyway, even in Magon, you still need one or two sets of decent clothes to support the scene, so you might as well buy them in Paris this time. Louis, I dare say that the tailoring in Paris is unmatched in other provinces at any time. As the saying goes, even old clothes in Paris can still tell the style of the year, while some clothes in other provinces even have the same style. There's nothing to talk about!"

"Well, Al, you can always convince me." Louis sighed, took a bite of white bread, and mentally calculated how many francs he could pay for this custom-made suit: "I think I must first declare , my manor does not have as much income as you, so you can't book for me according to your standard of clothes - I only need a moderately decent dress by Parisian standards, so I won't let you go to the ball As for Magon, I don't think it's wrong to put Paris's decency there, but only if you don't make me order those trousers that only Parisians wear. .”

"You don't have to worry about this, you don't need to pay anyway." Alred said, seeing that Louis wanted to refute, he immediately said: "This is a birthday present for you as a make-up, after all your birthday is in August I forgot to send you a birthday present with the letter, didn't I?"

"Come on, Al, I can still pay for a suit."

"If you don't like it, I'll take it as if you don't want to accept my birthday present to you!" Alred pretended to be angry, "Well, I swear, I ordered clothes for you. The money won't be more than what I spent on Margaret that day, so it's okay to say that?"

Louis thought about the more than 100 francs that Alred paid for Marguerite's bill before, and felt that although it was a little expensive to order a decent set of clothes at this price, it was not unacceptable, so he Agreed—he had made up his mind to smuggle the money for the tailoring to Alred under his pillow when he left Paris, so he stopped insisting on paying for it himself.

Alred didn't know what was going on in his mind, but thought that he was successfully persuaded, so he started to tell him about his plans for today.

"We'll go to Bizon's tailor shop to measure your size today. If it's still early after we're done, we'll walk around, and then we'll go to the college student cafe in the Latin Quarter for dinner."

"Cafe for college students?"

Louis recalled the cafe he went to yesterday, and couldn't imagine linking such a luxurious place with the poor group of college students: "Is this college student cafe similar to the Rishle Cafe we ​​went to yesterday? ? If so, I can't imagine it, after all, when you wrote to me before, you said the most about 'for students, poverty and restraint are the norm of life'."

When Alred was studying in Paris, Earl Fernand gave him [-] francs a year for living expenses. According to Alred's observations, the minimum annual living expenses for a family of five in this city It’s also about a thousand francs—of course, this is the cost of barely enough food and clothing for five people. It’s not about the quality of life. Basically, you can only eat the cheapest bread or potatoes, and even candles every day. Can't afford it.

For a student studying law in Paris alone, the living expenses of 30 francs per year are more than enough for him to live and have some slightly luxurious enjoyment, but as Louis said to Count Fernand, Arle In order to hone his ability to live in poverty, Ryder decided to compress his living expenses to be the same as those of his classmates who needed [-] francs to support their living expenses for three years.Although the earl gave him enough living expenses, he still stipulated that he could only spend [-] francs a month at most and he really implemented it. As a result, he complained countless times in his letters to Louis about the high prices in Paris and the high prices of students. their poverty.

Under these circumstances, it was not surprising that Louis could not imagine a Café Rischer for poor students.

"Oh, it can't be a coffee shop like the Rishle Cafe we ​​went to yesterday!" Alred knew that Louis had misunderstood, "It's just a cheap place to eat, because it takes good care of everyone." Qian’s students are called the College Student Cafe by everyone. When I was still in college, I ate dinner at their house every day for a while-although neither the Oyster Rock Restaurant nor the Rishir Cafe was better than either. No, but it still has a special place in everyone's heart. Of course, I mean those students who have their own status and income after graduation."

Like a kid eager to share a favorite toy with a best friend, Allred can't wait to give his best friend a taste of his college life: "I sometimes go back there for dinner now, It is said that the menu there has not changed for decades, at least if I go back now, the food I eat is the same as when I was in college. If you sit on the second floor and watch the students eating there, then It's so much more fun, it's almost like seeing my old self - fun, Louie!"

"If you say that, I want to experience what this college student cafe is like right away."