Granville's estate

After the porter went out, Mary picked up the box containing the coins and said to Louis: "Please wait here a moment!" Then she also went out, leaving Louis looking at the house of his friend by the light of the candle. residence.

Compared with Chablis-Granville Mansion, the first impression here is "new", everything is brand new.The walls around the living room have already been covered with fine wood wainscoting. Perhaps its owner thought the gray paint on the wainscoting was not good enough, so he added colorful grapevine wallpaper to the board to make people feel happy. a sparkling brass mirror hung on a white marble mantelpiece beside the unburned hearth, buckled inward; in the center of the drawing-room hung a dainty crystal chandelier, and the chairs and couch were upholstered in brand-new a silver-plated wall clock in the shape of a transparent fountain ticked merrily on the wall, chairs and a small table by the sofa were decorated with fine white Sèvres Grecian figures, and even The table by the window, which Mary had improvised for the cloth, was of varnished walnut.In short, if in Louie's own home there was mostly well-maintained old furniture due to the principle that "nothing should be spoiled", here you will not find a single piece of that time-honed furniture shadow.

While Louis was looking at the living room, Mary came in again with a candle. This time, she had a small and thin porcelain plate in her hand, and there were a few pieces of cut dry bread the size of a palm in it.She put the plate on the snail-footed mahogany table by Louis's hand.

"What would you like to drink? Tea or wine? Even gin if you want, I'll get it for you."

"Please give me a small glass of wine, please," said Louis.

This time Mary came back quickly, and she brought a bottle of wine and a transparent glass, and poured a full glass for Louis: "Please use it! Ah, please don't think this is neglecting you, it is really There is nothing to eat at home, you can eat a little bread to fill your stomach first. It will be fine when Papa Tongsal buys dinner. The food in Papa Deni’s restaurant is Mr. Allred’s favorite, and you should also like it like."

Going to a restaurant for dinner on an ordinary day is something beyond Louis’ daily experience. He picked up a piece of bread and asked suspiciously, “It’s because Alred is not at home today, so you didn’t make dinner for him today.” ?"

Mary, who was placing the candlestick on the table, froze for a moment.

"Mr. Alrede basically doesn't eat dinner at home. Even if he eats at home, he buys it from a restaurant outside." She said, smiling a little embarrassedly: "Mr. Alrede didn't hire a cook, usually Papa Sal sometimes cooks some dishes, but those are very poor dishes, and only he can eat them, so I just asked him to go to Papa Deni's restaurant to buy a set meal."

"I heard the budget you gave, and it's too expensive." Louis took a bite of the bread, and found that it was covered with very sweet yellow peach sauce, and it seemed that white sugar was added extravagantly: "Four francs are only For one day’s dinner, Holy Virgin Mary, if we use all of these potatoes to buy potatoes, we can buy more than 100 catties!"

"This is Paris, Monsieur Farentin!" Mary said, going to sit down at her own walnut table by the window. More than that. Well, if you had come earlier, say at three o'clock, before Mr. Allred went out for a walk, he would surely celebrate your arrival by taking you to dinner at Sherry's or Reeve's; only At this time, only Papa Denis's restaurant in the vicinity is still in the eyes of Mr. Allred, if I let Papa Tonsal go to another pub to buy dinner, he will definitely say that I have neglected you."

Louis suddenly felt that the originally sweet and delicious bread in his mouth had turned bitter. He chewed it slowly for a while, swallowed the bread, and for a moment didn't know what to say.

"If my understanding is correct, you mean that this kind of spending is a regular thing for Alred?" Louis said, "You said that there is no cook at home, which means that whether it is breakfast , Lunch or dinner, does he spend money to buy it from restaurants outside?"

"Breakfast and lunch are easy to settle, Mr. Farentin." Mary, who was sitting by the window, twirled her needle and thread, and picked up a piece of fabric that had not been embroidered. "Mr. It’s enough to order bread, and lunch is about the same, and they went out for a walk not long after lunch, and it’s this hour after the walk, and they happened to be having dinner outside.”

Louie took another small bite of the bread without eating.

"From this point of view, he really doesn't need to hire a female cook to cook." He said, "But then, as his housekeeper, how will you solve the problem of dinner? Don't you just eat bread every time? ?”

"Ah, you think too highly of me, Mr. Farentin. I'm not Mr. Alred's housekeeper. I'm just a maid hired by him to take care of his daily life." Mary said, "I also have a younger brother with me. Mr. Allred, his name is Joseph, and he went out with his carriage in the afternoon. Because of some things, Mr. Allred kindly hired me and my brother at the same time, otherwise my brother and I might have to separate in different places. The family has done work; he provides food and housing for us, and we still have wages every month. Compared with our previous predicament, what is nothing but bread for dinner? What's more, there is jam, which can be spread every day. I am very happy to eat bread."

"I was mistaken, and I see that you are very well organized, and must have been trained as a butler; Alrede seems to have entrusted you with some money for safekeeping, so I thought you were his daughter. The housekeeper." Louis said, "I don't think your conversational temperament is like that of an ordinary maid, and I didn't think of you in this way from the beginning."

"My father used to be a barrel merchant, so I was taught a decent education, which may be the source of your misunderstanding," said Mary. "Unfortunately my father went bankrupt a few years ago and passed away, and his fortune was scarce after the funeral expenses, and my brother and I were left to subsist on doing work for other people, Mr. Allred knew our situation and hired us, let us Not to be separated, so we are very grateful to him."

Although talking about such a heavy past, Mary's voice didn't sound very sad. She flipped the fabric on the table, pulled out the material she wanted to embroider, and then pushed the excess material to the other side of the table.

"It's fine if you think of me as a housekeeper, as long as you don't misunderstand me as Mr. Alred's lover. Only that will trouble me."

She wrapped one end of the material around her index finger, and shook Louis playfully from side to side.

Louis' face turned red immediately, he clenched his hands into fists in embarrassment, and coughed into his mouth.

"To tell you the truth, I did have such an idea at first." He admitted, "After all, you really don't look like an ordinary servant. A beautiful girl who doesn't look like a maid appeared in a gentleman's residence. That's always more misleading."

"Ah, it doesn't matter. This is not the first time I have been misunderstood." Mary said, "Miss Margaret thought so when she saw me for the first time. Misunderstanding, Mr. Allred took a lot of trouble."

"Is that Miss Margaret Almaid's lover? Does that lady come to Almaid often?"

"She doesn't come here often, but Mr. Alred goes to her very often. In fact, they meet every day on their walks, so that Mr. Alred can know which theater or ball Miss Margaret will be in every night. superior."

"What kind of person is Miss Margaret?"

"A beauty, a very beautiful beauty, sir!"

It is said that jealousy among women is terrible, but when Mary talked about the beauty of Miss Margaret, there was no trace of jealousy in her tone, but pure praise and admiration.

Louis wanted to know more about Miss Margaret, so he followed Mary's topic, and Mary also told a lot of interesting things that happened between Margaret and Alred, It’s just that these anecdotes are becoming more and more unpleasant to Louis’ ears—Allaide moved to live at No. 79 St. George Street because of Margaret, and the decoration and furniture here are all Margaret’s favorites. They almost every afternoon We all meet at the Bois de Boulogne, and at night we meet again at the theater, ball or salon...

Before I knew it, the hands on the wall clock pointed to eight o'clock, the porter returned with the dinner bought from the restaurant, and the conversation was interrupted; Mary left the living room, moved a candle into the dining room, and put the dinner Portioned on silver-plated plates, the soup is poured into pots to warm slightly.As soon as she finished tidying up, she heard the creaking sound of carriage steps being lowered outside the door of No. 79 St. George Street.

Louis in the living room was quicker than Mary to see Alred, who was eager to come in. As soon as he got up from the chair, the latter rushed over and gave him a big hug, and almost knocked him down because of too much force. .

"My God, Louie, I didn't expect it was really you!"