Granville's estate

The day after returning from the ball of the Vicomtesse de Bourgogne, Louis had a fever.

When Louis woke up in the morning, he felt very tired and didn't want to eat anything. He thought it was just because they played too late yesterday, and he just needed a good sleep to get better—he knew now Why Alrede often doesn't get up until ten or eleven o'clock in the morning is because people in Paris have fun until very late at night, and it is impossible to get up early; The feeling didn't get better at all. Alred felt that something was wrong with his blushing cheeks. When he touched his forehead, he was frightened by the scalding temperature.

"My God, Louie, you're sick!"

Following these words, 79 St. George Street fell into a panic. Father Peter drove Joseph out in a carriage to find a famous doctor. The empty doctor just "invited" to 79 St. George Street.After the doctor came and asked about the situation, he judged that Louis had a fever because of the wind and cold at night. He drained a little blood on Louis, and asked Mary to apply a towel soaked in ice water to Louis' forehead. To cool him down, the door and window of the bedroom should be sealed tightly, and no draft should be allowed to come in through the window or any other place; People go to buy nourishing chicken breasts to nurse the sick.

In this way, Alred and Louis would never sleep in the same bed again. Louis originally wanted to move to the guest room on the second floor by himself, but Alred firmly forbade him to move.

"You're still running a fever. If you were to move there, who would I be?" He stomped his feet angrily, "You don't have to think about anything, just give me a good rest!"

With Joseph, Papa Tunsal and Papa Peter present, it was not difficult to tidy up the guest room that had not been used for a long time. Alrede moved to a smaller guest room that night, leaving the comfortable main living room Left it to Louis.

That night Joseph stayed outside the door of the main living room all night, ready to answer Louis' calls at any time. The next morning, Louis felt better, but on the third day he had a low-grade fever again, and he didn't want to eat anything. , I only drank a sip of milk at the end of the day.Allred was so anxious that he put aside the walk in the Bois de Boulogne that he had to go every afternoon and his beloved Marguerite, and tried his best to let Louis eat some nutritious chicken breast , or drink a little milk.

In the end, the well-informed janitor, Papa Thongsar, suggested to his master that, in view of the poor appetite and digestion of the patient, the bread should be cut into small pieces and soaked in warm milk until soft. Let him eat it again; the same goes for the nourishing chicken breast, fried tender and cut into small pieces, sprinkled with his favorite spices, so that the patient may eat more.

Allred accepted this proposal. In order to make the chicken breast taste better for Louis, he asked Joseph to send the bought chicken breast to the nearby Papa Denis restaurant, and asked the restaurant staff to use the best chicken breast. Culinary means to process them, and then cut into small pieces that can be swallowed in one bite.

After accepting a tip of ten francs, the chef at Papa Denis lived up to his reputation for craftsmanship, and seasoned the chicken breast sent over with shallots, making it so that people would move their index fingers when they smelled it; even so, Louis He still didn't have much appetite, but in order not to let Alred's kindness go to waste, he still frowned and ate a few mouthfuls with great difficulty.

Alred himself used a fork to bring small pieces of fried chicken breast to Louie's mouth so that he could eat it without having to do it himself.To divert his attention, he said to Louie: "The scene of feeding people like this reminds me of one thing. Do you know who I think of?"

"I guess you think of the countess who took care of you when you were sick when you were a child." Louis said that being sick is the weakest time for a person, and it is easy for anyone to think of his mother at this time, so he also thought Al Ryder missed the deceased Countess de Granville.

"Ah, although my mother doted on me before I was sent to Saint-Etienne, she would not take care of me personally in this way. She attaches great importance to her status as a countess." Alred said, He picked up a piece of chicken breast with a fork and brought it to Louis's mouth, "I'm reminded of Margaret's previous experience."

"What experience?" Louis asked, he glanced at the piece of chicken breast on the fork, turned his head to the side, and was reluctant to open his mouth.

"Margaret's experience when she was still in District No. 12." Alred said, seeing that Louis was very reluctant to eat, he put the piece of chicken breast into his own mouth: "She still wants to eat it." When I was in District No.12, I huddled with other female workers in the attic to do embroidery work for the cloth merchants. I had to work hard every day, and there was no rest for a minute in the middle-she was not yet ten years old at that time! Those In order for these girls to be able to continue their work, the cloth merchant hired someone to cut the bread into such a size that they could swallow it in one bite, and brought it to their mouths to feed them at a fixed time, just like I just fed you It's like eating chicken breast. In this way, the female workers don't have to put down their needles and threads and waste time eating."

"My God," said Louis, who thought Sologne had treated his porters harshly enough, and now it turns out that the extreme exploitation that exists in No. 12 is even harsher than he thought, Allred said The treatment of the porter is "okay" and it is completely established, because he can at least take a break between the porters: "I remember you said that the female workers in District No. 12 embroidered fabrics for the fabric merchants every day. You can only earn five or six francs a month?"

"That's right, their wages are so cheap, but even the five or six francs cost them their lives." Alred said, chewing the chicken breast: "Do you still remember that Sologne lived?" Margaret lived in a place similar to that, but it was worse, and there were a dozen female workers living with her, and they had to work sixteen or seventeen hours a day; They couldn't afford firewood to make a fire, so they huddled together and relied on the body temperature of their companions to keep warm."

"Did Miss Marguerite tell you these things herself?" Louis asked. He really couldn't imagine that a beautiful girl who was so arrogant that she could throw fifty francs to a stranger had such an extreme life before. miserable life.

"Marguerite wouldn't tell me this, she never mentioned a word to me, it was all told to me by Mrs. Bussard next to her." Alred said, he saw that Louis no longer wanted to eat After that, he put the plate with the chicken breast in his hand aside, and handed him the handkerchief: "But it's easy to find out about these things. Even though they work so hard, Margaret's parents are still so poor that they can't even buy Potato’s money couldn’t come out, and in the end they couldn’t support it anymore, so they sent Margaret to the theater when she was 12 years old. They said they were actors, but they actually sold their own daughter to the theater ——So I am not surprised that Margaret does anything now. Many times what she and her friends do that are not decent in the eyes of others are nothing more than their poor life before. It's just revenge."

Louis listened intently, and when he heard Alred's last words, he couldn't help but sighed softly.

"If self-indulgence can avenge the suffering that has been experienced, it would be too easy to escape from the unfortunate past."

Knowing about Margaret's past, Louis was full of sympathy for that girl from the bottom of his heart, but if what this lady did would involve his friend, he would rather his friend not have anything to do with her It was good, so as not to tarnish the reputation of his friends and the Granville family.

"Oh, let's not talk about it, you're still sick, it's just going to put you in a bad mood," said Allred, standing up and beckoning Joseph to come in and take the plate with the chicken breast, and pick up the carved A glass perfume bottle with a laurel leaf pattern. Sprinkle the delicious perfume on the bedside curtains to cover up the smell of food: "I think you should sleep well, and you will be better in two days." That’s it, then I’ll take you for a walk in the Bois de Boulogne to breathe some fresh air.”

"But I'm not sleepy at all now." Louis said, he took out his pocket watch and looked at it, the hour hand pointed to [-]:[-] pm, it was already dark outside, but it might be because he slept too much these two days Because of this, he didn't feel sleepy at all.

"Then I'll go to the study and bring you some newspapers to pass the time for you, but don't read them for too long."

Alred said, screwing on the cap of the perfume bottle.

That's when Papa Thongsar came into the main living room, a business card in his hand.

"Sir, a guest sent someone to send a business card and asked if he could come to visit around eight o'clock this evening." Father Tonsal said, and he handed the business card in his hand to Alred: " The runner said it was M. Galbien de Durand."

As soon as the name was uttered, both Alred and Louis were stunned.

"Monsieur Galbien de Durand?"

Isn't that the cousin of Mr. Viscount Callister de Durand?He basically had no friendship with Alred, why did he suddenly say he wanted to visit?

Alred took a look at the business card, and it was indeed Galbien's name.

"Did the person who sent the business card say why Mr. Galbien is coming to visit?" He asked puzzled.

"That's all for now, sir."

Alred and Louis looked at each other, and couldn't think of the reason why this gentleman came to visit No. 79, St. George Street. Father Tongsar kept urging: "Sir, how should I answer, the runner is still outside Waiting!"

"How about this, Papa Tongsal," Alred thought for a while, and thought it shouldn't be a bad thing: "You tell the messenger that I welcome Mr. Galbien's visit very much."

After getting the answer, Father Tongsar went out, and Allred said to Louis: "Damn it! I haven't met that Mr. Galbien a few times. I don't know why he suddenly said that he would come over—say Really, even if his viscount cousin said that he would come to visit, I can still understand a little bit, at least we were classmates in the same school before!"

And when he heard the surname De Durand, Louis was already at a loss.

"Could it be that the Viscount de Durand didn't want to attract attention, so he borrowed his cousin's name to visit?"

He said something dazedly, and as soon as the words were out of his mouth, Louis wanted to swallow them back.

Fortunately, Alred didn't have any doubts about what he said at all, he even considered this possibility very seriously and overturned it: "I don't think so, that gentleman doesn't look like a person who would do that—ah Forget it, no matter what he came for, I will deal with it when the time comes, don't worry."