little miss austin

The count stared: "Stop!" Unfilial daughter!Every time she mentions getting married, she threatens to go to her aunt's house for "a few years".

"Ah! Oliver is back, I'll go see them." Elizabeth slipped away.

September 9th, Oliver's 5th birthday.

Alice spent half a day in the kitchen learning from the cook, wasting half a bag of flour and two dozen eggs, and finally made a decent cake embryo.The cook whipped the cream for her, and the kitchen maid cut the fruit.

She seldom goes to the kitchen, so she can't help getting flour all over her body, face and hair. After making cakes, she goes upstairs to take a shower, wash her hair and change clothes, and it's time for dinner when she goes downstairs.

The Devereux father and daughter didn't think it was necessary for Alice to make cakes by herself. For the kitchen, it was enough to have a cook. The lady education Elizabeth received was that women with status don't need to really learn how to cook and make pastries. Housewives have many things to do, and it is impossible to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. A woman with status must have cooks and servants in her home.

But seeing the happy expression on Oliver's face, she felt that Alice knew how to make him happy.

Oliver knew that Alice had been tinkering in the kitchen all afternoon, and he also knew that she was making cakes.In this era, commoners don't celebrate birthdays specially, and nobles' birthdays are just a reason to hold banquets or dances, and they don't like to eat birthday cakes.Oliver didn't hold a dance this year because of his eyesight. He just had a meal with his uncle, cousin, and Alice, and the dishes were a little more varied.

The dessert was a fruit cake made by Alice. Even though Oliver couldn't see it, she carefully arranged flowers with fruits on the cake.

Oliver waited all afternoon, waiting to eat fruit cake.

He originally thought that she didn't cook too much and couldn't cook delicious food, but the result was quite unexpected. The cake was fluffy, the cream was smooth, and it was delicious with fruit.

He was very happy.

The day after his birthday, Alice changed his bandages.

Put the recliner flat, let him lie on the recliner, remove the bandage, wipe his eyelids and eye sockets with cotton dipped in distilled water, and carefully drip two drops into each eye with the eye drops prescribed by the doctor.

"There is still half a bottle left, and the instillation will be finished, and there is no need to wrap the bandage after the instillation is over." The eyes were covered for more than 4 months, which was very boring.

"I'm tired of wearing bandages again." He said with a smile, rolling his eyes to "look" at her in the direction of her voice.

Alice put away the medicine, cotton, and distilled water, and took a new roll of bandages and put them on the small table at hand.

"Are you going home in the autumn? The baron has written several times to ask."

"That depends on where you want to live. My house has many houses, you can choose whatever you want."

"Or to Madeira, would you like to go? Malta is also available."

"Where do you want to go?"

"I can have a vacation of about 3 months, why don't we go to Malta, I haven't been to Malta yet. When I come back, I will live in London. Ollie, I haven't asked you yet, if I go out to work and you Stay at home, we can only be together at night, do you want me to stay at home with you?"

"You little idiot, you're asking the wrong question. Of course I want you to stay with me all day, but I will never limit you to staying at home. But you have to make me feel at ease, you... I won't let you If you like other men, you can only like me and love me, and you are not allowed to leave me for other men." He said carefully.

She didn't speak, picked up the bandage and prepared to wrap it up for him, "Close your eyes."

He suddenly stretched out his right hand and waved twice, grabbing her right wrist.

Alice was puzzled, "What are you doing?"

He sat up, "Alice." He stood up quickly, stretched out his hands, and walked towards the window.

Walking slowly and carefully, he walked around a single sofa in front of the window.

"Can you see it?" Alice asked happily, "Can you see it or can you see it clearly?"

"I can see the brightness now." He was full of joy, "Seeing that you are still a shadow, there is sunlight in the window, very bright."

He looked at her, "I still can't see your face clearly, your face is - a peach." He leaned over to kiss her with a smile, first kissed her nose, and then kissed her lips .

"I'll have the servants fetch Dr. Kerstace," she murmured.

"He can wait." He continued to kiss her, lingering, and gradually turned hot, biting her lips lightly, and hugging her waist tightly with his arms, inseparable.

The servant galloped to look for Dr. Kerstace, and Earl Deveroll was overjoyed, walking up and down the living room, "Great! As long as I can see the shadow, it will be all right in a few months! Maybe Not even for a few months. Oliver, don’t go back in a hurry. Your father doesn’t know why he wants you to go home. The anger of a stupid woman."

Elizabeth raised her forehead, "Father, Mrs. Caroline can't do anything to him."

"That's because you don't understand. She can't beat Oliver, and she can't scold him, but if he is unhappy in other places, Oliver can't tell his father."

"What else can she do?"

"It's too much! Don't think I don't understand. For example, Oliver wants to eat roast quail or roast squab, and then the kitchen said that he didn't buy pigeons today. He can't complain about such a little food, can he?"

Elizabeth frowned, "She would do such a thing?"

"She came from a bad background and was very stupid. Her stupid daughter was sent away. Do you think she will hate Oliver?"

Elizabeth suddenly said, "Indeed."

Oliver said lightly: "She can't do anything to me. There may be inconveniences in life, but I don't have to go home."

The count hurriedly said, "That's right! You can live in my house forever, for as many years as you like."

"I'll live with Alice in London."

"That's all right. Although your stupid father married a stupid woman, he never brought her to London. After all, he is not stupid. But you'd better move what Gemma left you to London, otherwise That woman is always thinking about what Gemma left you brothers."

Oliver thought about it, and indeed he should go back and clean up his mother's belongings.When Alice lived in Newton Manor, she looked through Mrs. Gemma's dowry list, opened the box to check the outline, took out a few pieces of jewelry, and left nothing else.

Mrs. Gemma's relics are left to her sons. The youngest son died long ago, so Oliver and Julian should share the inheritance equally. Julian should have divided the inheritance after marriage, but Oliver was not at home at the time, so there has been no division. .

The count asked again: "Are you going to live in your father's villa, or rent a villa yourself?"

"I have several properties in London, one near Hyde Park, the house is a bit bigger." Alice said.

"Hyde Park is nice." The earl was a little surprised, "Your property?"

"My own property."

"Alice likes buying houses," Oliver said with a smile.Alice told him that she owned at least three properties in London, and he was also very surprised, and from her tone, she had more than these three properties, so she was a small landowner.

Alice is a shrewd little landowner. She buys houses and land everywhere in London and the suburbs of London. Except for the three properties mentioned to Oliver, all the other houses in London are rented out. The annual rent can also be several hundred pounds. Two people If you live in London and don't give much banquets and dances, you can live well on 3 pounds, and you can live quite comfortably on 500 pounds.

Doctor Kerstace came quickly, and after examining Oliver, he was also very happy, saying that he would be cured soon, and re-prepared eye drops, and asked the servant to get the medicine in a few days.

So all the masters were very happy, and so were the servants. After Master Oliver's eyes healed, the earl would definitely give a bonus; according to Alice's generosity, when they left the Archimedes Manor, they would also generously stay Leave a tip.

Alice wrote to Mrs. Austin that night, saying that Oliver's eyes had improved a lot, and he could see the shadows vaguely. The doctor was very optimistic, and she was also very happy.

Mrs. Austin was very happy, thinking that she might see her youngest daughter get engaged in a few months. This joy slightly diluted her worries about her two youngest sons: Francis and Charles are both on the battlefield in North America now, because June 6 On the 18st, US President James Madison declared war on Britain at the White House.

This war came to be known as the "Second American Revolutionary War", also known as the "War of 1812".The cause was Britain's blockade of the French coast, prohibiting other countries from trading with France by sea, greatly affecting US exports, and a series of other small frictions and skirmishes.After the British Navy blocked the French coastal ports, it continued to manufacture warships in large numbers, and some of them were stationed on the coast of North America. In terms of policy towards this lost colony on the east coast of North America, the British Navy adopted the method of supplying guns to Indian tribes. So there were enough weapons to fight back against the occupiers.

It was also because the U.S. government only occupied a small piece of territory east of the Mississippi River at this time, and wanted to go north to occupy the Upper Canada area that is still controlled by the United Kingdom, mainly the Toronto area, which is relatively well developed and has a lot of immigrants.

Various factors led to the hawks in Congress gaining the upper hand, so 29 years after the Revolutionary War, the United States had to fight another war with Britain.

The political situation in Britain at this time is also far from normal.

At 5 pm on May 11, British Prime Minister Spencer Percival was assassinated in the lobby of the House of Commons.The murderer, John Bellingham, was a businessman who felt dissatisfied with the government because he believed he had been unfairly imprisoned without compensation, and the prime minister became his number one target of revenge.

The Earl of Liverpool, the successor Prime Minister, tried to repair relations with the United States. On June 6, he announced the abolition of some laws against the United States. However, due to time limitation, the United States could not be informed of the declaration of war on June 23.

Francis originally belonged to the Mediterranean Fleet. At this time, he had changed from St. Alban to the third-class sailing battleship Elephant as the captain, and sailed to the east coast of North America in July; Charles had previously served in the North American Fleet of the British Navy, and was promoted to The captain of the second-class sailing battleship Namur, at the age of 7.

Grant Temple’s last letter was sent on June 6. He just learned that the US government had declared war on Britain. He worried that he might be asked to enlist in the army. He was the second son and was accepted in England. He has a college education, a good family background, and has received education since he was a child. He is an excellent candidate for an officer.

Francis' letter was sent after leaving for America, and he was also very worried about going to another continent to fight.Due to the complex composition of the crew of the British Navy, there are many deserters.A warship depends on the size of the hull and the number of artillery, ranging from dozens of crew members to more than 300 crew members. The British Navy currently has 176 large warships and 600 light ships of various types, requiring 14 crew members—not including officers— ——And now the entire British Army and Marine Corps add up to just over 20 people, including a considerable number of Indian soldiers and mercenaries, who simply cannot provide enough crew members.

The lack of crew can be supplemented by several aspects: regular junior sailors, aged between 12 and 15, mostly residents of the country; recruited adult civilians from the country; petty criminals, those who are willing to serve on the ship can offset the sentence, as well as salary, attracting Not a few criminals; men forcibly taken aboard by the Navy in overseas territories; refugees.Many of these deserters were not loyal, and when they reached the coast of the United States, many people ran away. The U.S. Navy handled the naturalization procedures for these deserters, and they turned into U.S. Navy crew members.

Francis said that he was not afraid of fighting, but that the crew would give you a group run at any time, and that would be a headache.

Because Britain was facing a war on both sides, the soldiers who were supposed to supplement General Wesley had to be transferred to the North American battlefield. General Wesley was furious that he did not get enough supplementary troops as he wanted.

War is a very expensive thing, so the British Parliament is facing the question of whether to increase the tax rate to deal with the war.Some enterprises and products began to increase the tax rate. At the same time, large-scale steam machinery replaced labor. For the most important textile industry enterprises in the UK, a large number of workers were laid off, which led to many incidents of smashing machines in many places. Activities, workers smashed machines, went on strike, and marched, demanding that factory owners reduce the use of machines and use more manpower.

Byron sympathized with these workers struggling to get enough food and clothing. At the end of February 1812, in a regular meeting of the House of Lords, Byron delivered a speech sympathetic to the workers, satirizing automated production, and believed that machines could only produce inferior products. products, and led to more unemployment; in April, he and other Whigs delivered a speech in the House of Lords in support of "Catholic Emancipation," the Anglican Church of England, which began with King Henry VIII of the Tudor dynasty in During the reign, repressive and coercive measures have been taken against Catholics and the Catholic Church, and there are still a considerable number of people in the UK who are Catholics.

Byron believed that with freedom of religious belief, the British government could not force Catholics to convert to Christianity.

None of the Austins are politically sensitive, but Pastor George is an Anglican priest, and he will definitely not be interested in Byron's remarks, and even disgusted.After seeing Byron's speech in the newspaper, Mrs. Austen was quite sure that she no longer liked the bad boy.

The domestic and international situation did not have much impact on the several companies of the Austin family. The impact of the steam printing machine on the printing industry was positive, increasing the printing speed, but there were still a large number of manual production processes that did not require layoffs. Printing plants have increased, and the number of employees in the printing industry has continued to increase.

Not to mention publishing houses, political pamphlets are printed every day, and stamp duty has been raised, but because of the huge increase in sales, it is still very profitable.

Because the situation is not so good, Alice is not going to develop new patented products.Before the invention and manufacture of AC motors and DC motors, printing machinery will still be dominated by steam printing machines; typewriters will still be sold for at least 100 years, and there is no need to worry about losing sales.It is not a problem for a family to have such two profitable industries and develop smoothly for 200 years.

She plans to focus her future development on the publishing industry.Newspapers and magazines were the most powerful public media before the invention of the Internet. Even the invention of television did not eliminate traditional paper media. There is a lot to do in this industry.

Paper media has become an important way for the public to obtain information, and it will also be an important means of changing the public. This position must be occupied in advance.

Alice is worried about her brothers. Fortunately, in this era, no country’s navy can compete with the British navy. After the British navy entered the 19th century, its national strength was strong and it vigorously built ships. It is already the country with the most warships in the world. The world is invincible, the safety of the brothers is still very guaranteed.

She went to London for a meeting once a week. She didn’t find the female editor she wanted, so she decided to train herself. She recruited internally from the typing training class of the Austin Typewriter Company. All students were required to provide their resumes, and those who had graduated could also provide their resumes. , She first read the resumes, then screened the more potential students and interviewed them one by one.

The salary provided by the magazine is very impressive, with a salary of 60 pounds a year, lunch and dinner included, accommodation provided, one day off a week, and a year-end bonus at the end of the year, so all the students submitted their resumes, and a large number of graduates heard the news. Send resumes.

Henry provided her with a temporary office and arranged for a secretary. It took her one day to interview all the trainees, and another day the next week to interview the graduates.The graduates of the typing training class are very popular in the job market, and they can basically find a job, but the annual salary of 60 pounds is still very attractive, which can be said to be a high salary.

Oliver didn't know how she did the interview, but felt that she was very hard. The girls came and went outside the door, muttering in low voices, asking each other what questions Miss Austin asked, and worried that they might not answer well.Everyone wanted to get this high-paying job, but Alice didn't say how many people she would hire, so no one knew for sure.

These students range in age from 15 to 25 years old. The condition for entering the training class is that they can already read and write. There is a lower age limit, but there is actually no upper limit. As long as you are willing to learn, you are 40 years old, and the training class will teach you.Graduation needs to be assessed, how many words can be typed in one minute, and a certificate will be issued after reaching the standard, which proves that you are a qualified typist. Students use this graduation certificate to go out to find a job.

Most of the students are unmarried and childless young girls. This is because if you have children, most of your energy can only be devoted to them, and you have no time to study and improve yourself.In addition to two hours of typing practice in the morning and afternoon, the learning content of the training class also includes some literary works and political pamphlets. After all, if the boss dictates some content, you have no idea what it means and cannot spell it correctly. , that will greatly affect the typing speed and quality.

There are also some married women who don’t have many children. Generally, there are younger sisters in the family to take care of the children, so they can spare time to attend classes. The courses of the training class are also very flexible. Classes are held separately for these married women, and they are only taught in the afternoon. Practice typing and the bibliography can be taken home.

There are also students who cannot come to class every day, and they are allowed to delay graduation, as long as they reach a certain number of class hours and pass the assessment.

The typist training class of the Austin Typewriter Company tried its best to allow every student who signed up to complete all the courses, pass the assessment, and get a certificate, so that they can find a job and support themselves.

The training class charged very little tuition, provided accommodation, but did not provide three meals a day. Women who had learned to read and write were not considered extremely poor, and a few pounds of tuition could still be used.The training class does not rely on tuition fees to make money, and it is enough to maintain a balance of income and expenditure. It is more about providing vocational training for women and increasing employment opportunities.Alice also wants to open a school for girls aged 8 to 14 in London to provide educational opportunities.

There are still a large number of civilian girls in London who do not have the opportunity to receive education, do not know how to read, and at most know how to write their names.It is unrealistic to start a full-time school at the beginning. Girls from civilian families have to start doing housework at the age of 6 or 7, so they tentatively have 4 classes every afternoon, mainly teaching and spelling.

Existing large-scale and well-known schools, such as Westminster School in the London area, still only enroll boys. Girls’ schools are all private schools, half of which are monastery schools. Most of the schools are extremely small, with a maximum enrollment of dozens There are only a few students, and the teachers are very average, and almost all of them know how to punish students physically.There are only a few high-end boarding schools that are better, but they still can't compare with noble schools like Harrow and Eton, and the courses taught are not as many as boys' schools, and astronomy and geography are not taught.

The first problem with opening a school was the address of the school. She bought another piece of land in the suburbs of London, and hired an architect to design the school's teaching building and dormitory building, making it very formal.

Oliver didn't understand why she suddenly wanted to open a school again at first, thinking she was too good at making troubles.

She said solemnly: "If you want to get rich, you need to run schools or engage in religion. I can't do religion by myself. I will be knocked down by the government, so I can only run schools."

The author has something to say: *Charles Austin is not in North America at this time, but in the British domestic military port.But, ignore it.