Granville's estate

"What's the matter, Louie?"

Alrede was nodding and smiling at each other with a gentleman beside him. After being pushed by Louis, he turned his head to look at his friend with some doubts.

"Al, look at that man over there." Louis lowered his voice, and pointed Alred to look at the guests on the left with his eyes: "I think it looks like the student from the University of Paris we once met, Villiers du Turner."

"What?! How could he be here?"

But the fact is so absurd—the one in front of the team on the left is really the college student they had seen before, standing proudly behind a gentleman and his wife, with his back straight and his head held high , like a general who is about to set off to conquer an enemy country.There were no other companions by his side, but he was holding an invitation letter that looked exactly like the others.

After confirming that it was really Villiers du Turner, the two friends glanced at each other and saw the horror in each other's eyes - with their toes, they knew that as celebrities who could enter and leave the court, Will the Vicomtesse de Bourgogne send an invitation to a provincial student studying in Paris, so how did Villiers get the invitation?Thinking again that Sologne said that he would sell his invitation letter, the invitation letter he sold could not have been in the hands of Mr. Villiers du Turner by such a coincidence right?

"Does Sologne know Mr. Turner?" Louis asked Alred in a panicked whisper. It felt like his partner was trying to cheat, but was caught by the teacher in the end—if Villiers took It's really Sologne's invitation letter, so the arrival time that collided is a disaster!The host of the ball is waiting in the second hall to shake hands with the guests entering from the entrance hall. The Viscountess can be seen occasionally from the entrance hall where they are now. How can they tell the Viscountess de Bougogne? Explain that the person holding the invitation letter with the name of Sologne Grostedt is not Sologne at all?

"They don't know each other!" Alred, who also thought of this level, was also a little flustered. He ground his teeth angrily, and let out a low curse from his throat: "This guy will really cause me trouble." !"

Nor did he know whether he was talking about Villiers du Turner or Sologne.

At this time, the gentleman in front of Villiers had already handed over the invitation letter to the person in charge of welcoming guests, and then walked into the door leading to the second hall with his female companion; Villiers stepped forward, Just like the others, hand over the invitation letter to the follower who is responsible for taking back the invitation letter, and then lift your foot and want to go inside.

"Sir, please wait a moment." The entourage on the left side of the door who was in charge of taking back invitations stopped Villiers with a smile. He looked at Villiers, looked him over from head to toe, and then turned around and handed Villiers' invitation letter to the person behind the desk who was responsible for registering the names of the guests.

The elderly attendant, wearing glasses and responsible for registering the names of the visitors, took the invitation letter, opened it, glanced at it, and then looked up at Villiers.According to the way he treats other guests, at this time he should start copying the names on the invitations into the big book where the names of the guests are registered, but he didn't do this, but raised the invitation again, holding it up on a At the same height as the eyes, then squinted, and looked repeatedly between the invitation card in front of me and the standing Villiers.

This approach led to an extraordinarily long time for checking Villiers' invitation compared to other people. Gradually, other people in the entrance hall also felt that something was wrong, and some people began to whisper.

"what happened?"

"I don't know, I guess there is something wrong with that person's clothes?"

"My God, if he goes to the door of the clothing store and acts as a wooden man on display, it will definitely make the store's business very good!"

"This gentleman's taste is really unflattering. I dare say that the waiter at Chevet's is better dressed for this ball than he is."

If Villiers du Turner needed to test whether he could be accepted by high society, then perhaps without entering the second hall, these low hums in the entrance hall had already determined that he had no possibility of integrating into this society. A place that I desperately want to blend in.These whispers are not finalized, nor are they officially published by any gentleman or lady of status, but they exist and can determine whether a person is qualified to enter this circle, as the saying goes, high society has status Some people always have a dog-like sense of whether another person is "one of them".

"His coat doesn't fit very well, look at his shoulders." Alred turned his body and lowered his voice and said to Louis: "It should not be tailor-made but bought in a tailor shop, and the style is also very old-fashioned." and I daresay the tailors must have tricked him, in order to sell them, into thinking it was a dress decent enough to wear here."

"No wonder I think there is something strange about him, but I just can't say it-maybe he is not quite like other gentlemen."

Louis also lowered his voice to answer, he was a little anxious trying to hear what the attendants of the Viscount's mansion called Villiers clearly, so as to make sure whether this person was holding an invitation from Sologne--May the Virgin Mary, he sincerely Just pray that things don't happen so coincidentally.

Villiers du Turner, who was treated specially by his entourage, must have felt that something was wrong. He still had that general-like look on his face, but now it was more like a bravado; With his head held high, he turned his head and scanned the entire entrance hall, eagerly hoping that a savior, someone of sufficient status, would appear to talk to him, so as to save him from being questioned.

A gentleman and his companion passed by Villiers, they handed the invitation to the entourage on the right who took back the invitation without questioning, and the person in charge of registering just glanced at them and registered their names in the guest list In fact, when passing Villiers, although it was only two short steps away, the unknown gentleman stopped on purpose, took out a palm-sized glasses with a handle from his pocket, and held it up to his eyes to observe him , as if observing some rare and exotic beast, and revealed a wordless sneer.

This kind of behavior and sneer towards the strange animals in the zoo is undoubtedly more murderous than the most mocking words. This undoubtedly deeply hurt Villiers du Turner's self-esteem, so that he saw Arles De and Louis was simply eye-catching, and he couldn't wait to greet them-the gentleman wanted to enter the ball of the Vicomtesse de Bourgogne so strongly that he probably forgot the invitation card. The name on it is not his real name.

"Monsieur de Granville," Villiers du Turner said to Arred, in a tone of affectation, probably trying to imitate the tone of the great nobles, but only in this way. As soon as he said it in his drooling pronunciation, it was so strange: "It's fate to see you again. It seems that our departure time is not much different, otherwise we wouldn't have met here."

Alred squeezed Louis' hand indiscriminately, signaling him to keep quiet and leave it to him to handle.

"Good evening, glad to see you in good health," said Alred in a slightly haughty drawl, pausing for a moment as if to consider what to call the person before him, and finally, Alred De did not call Villiers by name or name, but used the simplest and most common pronoun: "I hope to have time to talk with you later, sir."

During the short two seconds that Alred paused, Villiers du Turner probably finally remembered that the invitation he handed over did not have his own name on it. , then he may be kicked out by followers who found something wrong——Thinking of this terrible result, Villiers du Turner's face suddenly turned pale, and cold sweats were about to break out; After Ryder addressed him by "Sir" instead of his first name, he looked as if a man about to suffocate was rescued from the water that would drown him, and he regained his splendor.

"Of course, Mr. de Granville, I think we can continue to talk about what happened last time. I am very interested in your statement."

Villiers said this to Alred with his head held high. He regarded Alred's greeting with him as a victory, as if he had already won a big victory and defeated the followers who questioned him. The striking five-color striped shirt under the black coat had no soft whalebone collar under the collar to support his upturned head, and the collar shrank uncomfortably when he raised his face, as if against his The neck seemed to be disgusted, and this scene seemed a little funny.

When Villiers said this, Louis could hear the people next to them secretly laughing. He turned his head and saw a very beautiful girl in a bright blue skirt, holding a portrait. It was her father's middle-aged man's arm, holding a white Spanish bone fan, and looked like a little girl.This young lady probably participated in the dance of the social season for the first time. Her expression was curious and lively, and she was not shy when she met Louis's eyes. His gaze shifted back to Alred.

"See you later, then, sir."

Alred didn't expose Villiers' identity, but just said this to Villiers in a tone that was a little cold but not rude.At this time, they had already walked up to the entourage in charge of taking back the invitation. Louis followed the example of the person in front and handed the invitation to the entourage at the door. The latter handed it to the person in charge of the registration. After just looking at it, I began to copy Alred's name on the guest list.

On the other side, after Alred spoke to Villiers, the person in charge of registration on the left put Villiers' invitation on the table, and also began to copy the name on that invitation.

It seems that Villiers passed the test smoothly, and the person on the left who was in charge of taking back the invitation was still smiling. He no longer blocked Villiers, but said to Villiers: "Sir, your shoes Splashed with mud and stained, please ask the shoe shiner to wipe it for you."

When the entourage said this, someone came up from behind and made a "please" gesture to Villiers. Only then did Louis realize that there were two doors next to the entrance hall leading to the second hall. The small door looks like it leads to a relatively private small lounge.The two small doors were partly covered by hanging curtains, and the decorations on the doors and the decorations beside them were almost integrated, so it was easy to ignore them at a glance.

Hearing what the entourage said, Alred blinked at Louis and raised his eyebrows, in exchange for a slightly blank look in Louis' eyes - if the shoes are dirty, they need to be wiped clean, what's wrong?

"Don't waste my time too much, I am eager to catch up with M. de Granville."

Villiers seemed to be confused about the situation just like Louis, but probably because of the problem with the invitation letter, he was guilty of guilt and had no intention of rejecting his followers.

"Of course, Monsieur de Brion, please follow the waiter to the small drawing room."

This time, Louis winked at Alred.

De Brion—a surname I hadn't heard at all, but in any case, even if it was Napoleon Bonaparte, it was definitely much better than hearing the name of Sologne Grostedt!