little miss austin

The buggy at home was actually not very comfortable, and it was fine for short distances, but it would be tiring for long distances, mainly because the seats were not soft enough.Wesley's carriage can be considered very luxurious, the seats are spacious and gorgeous, and the cushions are thick cotton cushions.The existing cotton varieties can be roughly divided into long-staple cotton and short-staple cotton. Of course, long-staple cotton is the best material for making fine cotton cloth, and short-staple cotton is perfect for filling cushions and the like.

London is not bad, because there are still 100 years before the era of large-scale use of coal, air pollution is not a big problem, and factories are set up in the suburbs as much as possible, or farther away. The main consideration is the noise from steam engines.

After continuous improvement, the steam engine is mainly suitable for large-scale industrial enterprises, such as metal manufacturing, textile factories, smelting factories, etc. New technologies or new inventions appear every year, but it takes time for new technologies and new inventions to be introduced to the market , Sometimes it will be very slow, for example, the current printing press has not yet used steam engine power, so that the cost of printing has remained high.

Wesley lived near Hyde Park.Hyde Park is adjacent to Kensington Gardens, which is the private garden of Kensington Palace, where the royal family lives, so this area is a rich area.In the outskirts of London, Hyde Park used to be the royal family's deer hunting ground. There are trees everywhere, and there are many trees on both sides of the avenue.

The location of Wesley's house is very good. The appearance of the small building is a bit old, not as good as that of the neighbors, but this is also because the owner doesn't come to live very often and lacks good repairs. Wesley doesn't care too much about the appearance of the house.

The small building is not bad, there are 20 rooms up and down, and there is a big dance hall.Wesley was at home when Alice arrived.

The servant came out to open the door and helped her carry the small suitcase.

Wesley came out soon. "Are you tired?" He asked her with a friendly smile, "I asked my servant to prepare a lot of delicious food for you. There are a lot of fruits on the market now. You must like them."

"A little tired, and a little hungry." She was still too young, and her mother didn't buy her a hat, so she made a lace headband out of silk and lace that wasn't too wide, and put it on her head, which was very cute and cute.

A maid in her 20s came over and asked her softly what she would like to eat. The cook prepared a variety of dishes and reported a dozen of them. Alice ordered a few of her favorites. The maid nodded and said she had written it down. Wait for 10 minutes You can have dinner.

Wesley took her to the restaurant.There is a long table for 12 people in the dining room. It is not fashionable to put vases on the table at this time, so there are several plates of fruit on the table.

"Pineapple!" Alice was pleasantly surprised to see that there was a golden pineapple on the table, which was not too small, bigger than the combined fists of two adults.

"Last time I heard you say that you really want to eat pineapple, but it's too expensive."

"Yeah, it's too expensive!" Pineapples are native to Central and South America. They were introduced to Europe as early as the Age of Geographical Discovery, but they have been used as garden ornamental plants for many years without commercial cultivation. Many, even if the royal family members of Kensington Palace want to eat pineapples, they have to see which gardens produce them.

"Can I eat now?"

"Yes. But the cook doesn't know how to eat it, should I just cut it open?" Actually, he had never eaten this exotic fruit.

"Let the cook use a knife to cut off all the thorns here, and then dig out these places. These are not edible. After peeling, cut into pieces, scald them in hot water, and then—I like sweet ones, sprinkle them with— —" She thought for a while, "4 or 5 spoonfuls of white sugar, pour some hot water after 10 minutes, let the white sugar melt."

Wesley said to the servant next to him, "Go and tell the cook."

The servant took away the pineapple.

"Do you want to go upstairs and look at your room first, and change your clothes?" A lady of status probably changes at least three sets of clothes every day, and she also changes clothes after eating.

"No." Alice felt that she was still young, so she didn't need to be so particular. "But I have to wash my hands and my face."

A maid quickly brought a basin of warm water, a bar of soap in a wooden box, and a new white towel.

Alice took off the headband, washed her face and hands, the maid asked her if she still wanted to wear the headband, she said no, and put it in her room.The maid took away the basin and the hair tie.

"Sit down." Wesley pointed to the opposite seat.He didn't sit on the master's seat, but sat aside.

The servant pulled out a chair for her, and Alice sat down, "What do you do in London?"

"It's no fun. Sometimes I go out for a ride. It's in Hyde Park."

That is nothing to do.

"When are you going to Oxford?"

"Two days in advance, all the luggage has been delivered."

"Can you bring a servant?"

"It seems to be possible, but he can't live with me in the school. There is an apartment building for servants outside the school."

Well, it is.In addition to the children of nobles and children of rich families, those who go to college now are all upper-class people who cannot do without servants.Wesley was regarded as a landlord and aristocrat, the middle and upper class of the country gentry, and he was used to being served by servants.

"After you go to Oxford, you must be willing to spend money, but you must not let others think that you are a fool from the country. Don't spend money that you shouldn't spend."

Wesley smiled and said, OK.

Ask him again: "Will you go back to Gresham after the holiday?"

"Go back. If I dare to say that I won't go back, my aunt will be furious and scold me." His expression was flat, purely narrative.

The maid began to serve the food.

The two chatted while eating, Wesley was very careful not to mention Jane, and Alice did not mention Jane or Tom.When the meal was over, the maid brought out a plate of pineapple slices, with silver forks.

Probably because of the variety, the pineapple was sprinkled with sugar, but it was still not very sweet, and it was quite sour. After eating only one piece, Wesley frowned and said, "It's too sour."

"I think it's okay, but it's a bit sour. Maybe it's the variety. Some varieties are sweeter." Alice ate several slices in one go.But she had just eaten, and she couldn't eat too much pineapple, so she had to put down the fork.

"Can I take the pineapple upstairs and eat it?"

"Yes. Sarah, Miss Alice, please go upstairs."

Sarah is the maid in her 20s just now.

Alice followed Sarah upstairs, where the servants had brought her suitcase into the room, her skirts in the wardrobe, and her dressing-case on the dressing-table beside the bed, next to which was a large new full-length mirror.

Beside the window was a desk, on which were some books, a stack of papers, dip pens, and inkwells.Sarah put the plate of pineapple on the desk and asked her, "Do you want to take a shower now? The kitchen is boiling hot water."

"Where is the bathroom?" Alice took out her nightgown from the closet.

"I'll take you there when they prepare the hot water." Sarah pulled a rope beside the bed.

"What is this?" Alice asked curiously.

"This is a servant bell. You can order the people below to do things without going downstairs." Sarah explained to her the use of different ropes, "This white one is the hot water bell for the bathtub, and this black one is the wake-up bell. The blue one is the breakfast bell. You pull the wake-up bell and I'll come up."

Alice nodded: This means that Sarah was her personal maid when she lived in Hyde Park.

This day, she went to bed two hours earlier than usual.

Pineapple is delicious, but if you eat too much, your teeth will become sore. For breakfast, fried eggs are too hard. After eating a fried egg with a bitter face, I tear off all the skins of the bread slices and eat only The soft bread core inside can't eat anything else.

Wesley asked to understand that her toothache was caused by eating too much pineapple, and actually laughed for a long time.

Alice was so angry that she muttered dissatisfiedly: "Is it so funny?"

He nodded solemnly, "It's quite funny."

bad guy!

Alice gave him a hard look.

In the next few days, Wesley took her to some bookstores in Charing Cross Road.Compared with the last field trip, Alice studied the layout and location of each bookstore more carefully this time, the customer flow and transaction volume per unit time, the category and number of books, pricing and paper binding.

Because there is no color printing machine, all books are printed in monochrome, and even the cover has no meaning of binding. It is basically a white background, with the title, subtitle, author name, publishing house or publisher printed on it. , at most separated by some small patterns in the middle.Compared with the dazzling covers of later generations, this uniform and simple cover can be regarded as ugly.

There are illustrations in some books, which are basically prints, because prints can be stereotyped, and then used on the printing press.

The text is in movable lead type, and sometimes typos will appear if the typographer misreads the letters.Usually, after a typesetting worker completes a full page, he checks it twice with different workers, prints out one page first, and then continues to make corrections to ensure that no words are misspelled.Customers who buy books are very picky, and they don't want to see a book with typos.

After visiting the bookstore for a few days, Alice felt that she should go to see what the current printing factory looks like.

She wrote a letter to cousin Anna's distant relatives in the printing factory, saying that she would visit the printing factory in two days, but she fell ill as soon as the letter was sent and there was no reply.

This is an outbreak of flu in the suburbs of London. As long as the nearby residents have gone out in the past few days, half of them will be knocked down by the flu, and then they will be cross-infected at home. A few days later, there is no one around Hyde Park. The whole family is not sick.

The flu virus does not discriminate whether you are a high-status royal or a lowly servant.But what does not treat everyone equally is money.

Alice fell ill first, then Sarah, and then all the servants in the house, except the coachman and a kitchen-maid.Wesley also fell ill on the third day.

The house was full of sick people, almost too sick to get out of bed, and the cook had a strange-tasting herbal soup boiled on the stove, but it was of no use.

The nearby doctors were so busy that they went from one to the other, their legs were so busy that their legs were weak and their legs were thin.The coachman managed to find a doctor to see the little master and the little guest. The doctor prescribed medicine for them, but still said that it would take many days to get well.

Alice wrote a letter home on the second day after she fell ill, and asked the coachman to deliver the letter to the post office, and asked the coachman to go to Basingstoke to pick up the letter on the third day.

Mother Cassandra rushed to London as soon as she received the letter, and it was already night in Hyde Park.

The cook was lying down, and no healthy person could be hired to cook for these two days. Both Alice and Wesley could only eat boiled eggs and cold bread all day long.However, both of them had a fever and had no appetite to eat, so they had to eat just to survive.

Alice had been ill for more than two days when her mother arrived.I was sick and couldn't eat well, and obviously lost weight. My mother felt sorry for her, and made her some of her favorite food, fed her, changed her nightgown, sheets and pillows.

I went to see Wesley again, cooked him some food, asked the kitchen maid to feed him, and asked Wesley to change into clean pajamas and sheets.

I was busy until 2 o'clock in the morning, and then I went to the guest room to sleep.

After all, Wesley is an adult, and he is in good health. He was the last to get sick and the fastest to recover. The fever subsided after 3 days. After the fever subsided, he hurried to report to Oxford University.

Alice was the first to get sick and the last to get better. After her mother came, she had a fever for 4 days before it subsided, but she never fully recovered. It took two weeks before she could get out of bed.

The servants fell ill one after another for about a week, and then all recovered.The small building in Hyde Park quickly resumed its daily routine.The master's house is not short of money. Before leaving, the young master told Mrs. and Miss Austin to stay as long as they wanted.

The servants will inevitably chew their tongues in private, complaining that this is not a serious master.But they have also heard that the little master likes an older Miss Austin, maybe this will be the young master's mother-in-law and sister-in-law in the future, so let's serve them attentively.

Mom stewed a pot of chicken soup for Alice and Wesley every day, saying that it would get better sooner.After Wesley left, one chicken a day was replaced by half a chicken a day, half a chicken was stewed in soup, and half a chicken was braised in soy sauce.Alice likes to eat chicken legs, so she used two chicken hind legs to make soup. After drinking the soup, she ate the chicken legs, her mouth was full of oil and water, and it was delicious. So although she was ill for half a month, she lost a little weight in the first few days, and then she raised them all Woke up.

When Alice can get out of bed, it will be the 9th of September.

Her mother took her for a walk in Hyde Park, followed by Sarah, and a manservant, who was holding a pony in his hand, which Henry bought for her, and wanted to send it directly back to Steventon, but heard Said she had been ill in London, so she was simply sent to Hyde Park.

The pony is very beautiful, with a chestnut-colored fur and a white spot between the eyes and the bridge of the nose. It is equipped with a children's saddle and a riding whip, and it is very energetic.

Alice didn't get out of bed for many days, and she said her legs were weak after walking for a while, so her mother asked the manservant to help her onto the horse, and the manman held the rein and walked slowly.

"Mom, when are we going home?"

"Do you want to go home?"

"Well, I want to go home." She nodded.Although Hyde Park is very nice here, with a lot of servants serving it, it is not my home after all.

"I just sent a letter to my father, saying that I will be home tomorrow or the day after tomorrow."

The days of lying in bed all day are actually not very good, it is too boring, and her mother does not let her read, so she can only lie down and sleep, her bones hurt.

Also because I couldn't go to the printing factory, I had to write a letter asking Henry to go to the printing factory to help her see it when he had time, and Henry replied that he would try his best.

Pastor George wrote back the next day and asked Alice how her mental state was. If it was not bad, she would go to Mrs. Baker, a teacher recommended by Mr. Hastings. Mrs. Baker wanted to assess Alice.

So Alice and her mother stayed in London for a few more days. After resting, they dressed up and went to see Mrs. Baker.

Mrs. Baker was probably just forty, not too old, but not a young woman either.Not a widow, but separated from her husband for a long time, Mr. Becker lived with his mistress at the Becker Manor in Kent all the year round.

Of course these gossips were not from Mr. Hastings, but Alice heard the gossip from the servants at Daylesford House.

The second truth that Alice learned during the last trip is that there is no servant who does not gossip. If you want to know the secrets of the master, just ask the servant.You can afford the price, and the servant can tell all the dirty things about the master.

Mrs. Baker asked Alice what books she had read, chatted for 20 minutes, and invited her and Mrs. Austin to drink tea and some snacks. After drinking tea, Mrs. Austin took Alice to leave.

The carriage stopped on the street outside Becker's house, and the servant opened the door for them and pulled down the folding ladder.

Alice still doesn't know if the interview has passed, "Mom, do you think Mrs. Baker is satisfied with me?"

"I think I should be very satisfied," the mother smiled. "After all, you are quite smart." My baby must be smart and everyone loves her.

Alice was a little relieved: If this interview fails, it will be so embarrassing.

As soon as she got back to Hyde Park she wrote to both the Rev. George and Mr. Hastings.