little miss austin

Jane also took her to proms a few times.This style of skirt is a little looser now than it was a few years ago, and can cover a pregnant belly. The 4-month pregnant belly is only slightly raised, which is not conspicuous.In this day and age, women with a little status can only stay at home by default after pregnancy, and try to go out as little as possible, so as not to be seen by others. It seems that this is a shameful thing.

The last time Jane was pregnant, Alice wasn't home and didn't get a chance to see her pregnant.Now she found that pregnant women will subconsciously protect their stomachs and always protect the children in their stomachs.

"You should learn to enjoy it," Jane said.

"They're all too boring." Alice fanned the lace fan impatiently.

"Plug your ears." Jane suggested with a serious face.

"When I think about these people earning thousands of pounds a year, yet they are so stupid and conceited, I lose interest at all." Not only that, but when those people open their mouths, the little barrage of complaints in her heart can turn their faces Cover up.

"Conceit and stupidity are synonymous with men."

"What about Tom?"

"It's also pompous and stupid at times."

Alice couldn't help laughing, "Tom can't hear that."

Jane winked at her.

Tom is very smart, and conceit is inevitable and normal; as for stupidity, there may also be some.It still belongs to the limitation of experience.

Not long after Jane was sure she was pregnant, she moved from London to Austin for a temporary stay.When Henry was building a small villa, he built two at the same time. Now the Henry family lives in one small villa, and the other houses Jane and Helena.

When the weather got warmer, Eliza and Jane would bring Little Henry, Little William and Helena over every afternoon after taking a nap, do needlework with Mrs. Austen and Cathy for two hours, and go back after dinner.Alice often wants to be lazy again, and she will slip away without touching the hand for half an hour, take little Henry and Helena out to play, and also tell Jane to walk more instead of sitting all the time.

The woods next to the small villa are basically the private woods of the Austin family. When building the small villa last year, they also paved winding paths in the woods with cobblestones, and transplanted some wild berry bushes under the trees.Helena likes her new home very much. There are woods next to the new home and a large lawn where she can play wildly.Little Henry has the normal characteristics of a boy, and he is very good at having fun, but he has already learned how to take care of his younger siblings, and he will remember to look at Helena.

This kind of happy life is very comfortable, parents are present, brothers and sisters are friendly, there is no trivial matter, and the most likely conflicts of interest almost do not exist in this family. Alice thinks it is good to live like this forever.

Life does not necessarily have to go through storms to grow, that kind of growth is painful, and it will bring you a lifetime of shadows.Gentle wind and light rain can also make people grow.

Now that they live closer to Jane and Alice has grown up, the two sisters have a lot to talk about.Alice would tell Jane the ridiculous and stupid things she had observed about men, and Jane would always sum it up in her sarcastic and brilliant language.

If anyone came to visit Alice, one of Jane and Cathy was always with her, and understood Alice very well, and if she was impatient with each other, the sisters would quickly find a reason to send the person away.

At this time, my mother's thoughts were all on Jane, and she was not very anxious about the candidate for Alice's husband, probably because Oliver and Ivo had already been candidates before her, and her standards had also been raised. She had a good family background, annuity, and good looks will consider.

Ivo went back to London at the end of March and stayed for a week. He came to Austin's house every morning and didn't go home until after dinner in the afternoon.In the morning, he rushed over to ride a horse with Alice, and then came back to take a shower, change clothes, and have breakfast together. Alice went to work in the study, and he read a book silently.Take little Henry and Helena out to play in the afternoon, and usually let Sidney and Jacob look after the two children. They run into the woods and come out after a long time, and often Alice's skirt will be caught by the wood thorns on the bushes. Hook broken.

First love is green and sweet, and even kissing is cautious.

Lips on lips, a little impatient and disorganized.

Ivo is obviously not very good at kissing, which confirmed from the side that he was quite obedient at Oxford University and did not mess around; Alice, as the passive accepting party, thought he was stupid and cute.

Ivo always has a lot to say, and he has to tell her almost everything, about things in the university, about his sisters, about his parents, about himself.I always want to touch her, hold her hand all the time and don't want to let go, and soon I will actively and consciously develop into an arm around her waist as long as no one is looking.Alice felt awkward at first, and kept pushing him away, so he looked pitifully at her with wet eyes.

Alice couldn't resist the boy's puppyeyes, and her heart softened immediately.

The Austins then knew that the two teenagers were in love.

My mother has no problem with Ivo. They are similar in age and have known each other since childhood. Ivo is sweet-mouthed and very likable. The whole Austin family likes him very much.Although my mother sometimes feels that Ivo is not as calm as Oliver, Ivo is still very young after all. He is not yet 20 years old. In a few years, he will naturally become calm when he gets older. Even if he is not as handsome as Oliver, he is still handsome and cheerful. Alice chose Ivo instead of Oliver. What is there to be picky about?

The day before Ivo left, he took Alice to shopping in downtown London.He has 200 pounds in his hand, and he wants to buy her everything he sees. He didn’t buy any expensive items. He bought a bunch of small odds and ends, such as new fabrics, ribbons and laces, lace fans and lace gloves. pearl barrettes; a dozen linen handkerchiefs; several hats, trimmed with lace or ribbons or pearls; several pairs of shoes, of various materials; several ladies' silk handbags, richly embroidered; cosmetics, Eyebrow powder lipstick.

In the carriage home, Ivo hurriedly wanted to apply lipstick for her. He opened the lid of the small porcelain jar, dipped a little bit of lipstick on the belly of his right index finger, and asked her to turn her face, pinching her chin with his left hand, carefully She was putting on lipstick—and before she finished it, the wheels of the carriage ran over a pebble, and there was a slight bump. His fingers slipped, and the lipstick was applied to her chin.

He couldn't help laughing.

Alice patted his arm reproachfully, and took out the handkerchief from the handbag on his wrist.

Ivo hurriedly said, "I'll wipe it for you."

They sat side by side, their faces getting closer... Then Cathy coughed at the right time, preventing them from actually kissing.

Ivo blushed a little, quickly turned his face away, and pretended "I didn't do anything".

Now that Ivo has Ivo, mother has no problem with Alice not going out to the prom. The purpose of the prom is to meet possible husband candidates. Alice can easily skip the process of getting acquainted, probing, and visiting each other. The partner chose a very suitable candidate, and my mother felt that she was quite worry-free.

After she found out that her youngest daughter was very assertive earlier, she had been worried that Alice would behave out of line. Such things as elopement between famous ladies and lovers also happened from time to time, and each case would be gossip in various social circles. , she doesn't want her daughter to do such a thing that will bring a bad name to the family.Now it seems that her worries are unnecessary.

Not long ago, Mrs. Gordon finally found out that her son had fallen in love with the youngest daughter of the Austin family. She murmured to her husband that Alice was quite wild, but she just looked cute, and she was afraid that her good baby would be played by Alice.Mr. Gordon felt that his wife was thinking too much, but he went to Oxford to talk to his son.

Ivo then told his father about his future plans, getting engaged, getting married, and traveling in Europe. He was full of joy and wanted to share his joy with his family.

Mr. Gordon thought more practically, and asked him, "What does Miss Austin think?"

Ivo was obviously taken aback, "I haven't told her about this yet."

"Then when are you going to say it?"

"At the end of the year."

"Are you sure she thinks the same as you? I mean, did she ever think about marrying you?"

"Will she be unwilling?" Ivo asked in surprise.

"Ordinarily not. My son is so good and outstanding. She will love you too."

Ivo smiled shyly.

At the end of April, when Alice had finished her new novel, Cathy took her to visit her cousin Anna in Oxfordshire.

Over the years, Alice has also met Cousin Anna several times. Cousin Anna is still the same, all in black all day long, with a serious expression, and her face is getting older day by day.

Cousin Anna still lives in the small villa 10 years ago, with few servants, and a leisurely life.

However, unlike 10 years ago, she seems to have adopted a little girl.It was not considered a formal adoption, but the girl lived with cousin Anna, dressed and educated like a little lady.

"Claire, come to see the aunt of Austin's family. This is Cassandra, and this is Alice. This is Claire."

Clare politely called them "auntie" and curtseyed, and they were about 10 years old.

After meeting, Anna sent Claire away.

"This is the child of a farmer in a nearby village. His family can't afford to support her, so he wants to sell her." Anna said very briefly.

Alice thought, this is the common phenomenon of getting poorer and getting poorer.In the countryside, because of doing farm work, it is impossible to have no boys, so it is not enough to give birth to a boy, and you have to keep giving birth. It is best to have 3 or 4 boys in the family, so that when the children grow up to 8 or 9 years old, they will be born. You can do some light work, and at the age of 14, you can be a strong laborer; girls are also needed, and someone has to cook at home, feed the chickens, feed the pigs, and wash the clothes. There are too many girls. After all, you have to eat when you open your mouth, and you have to give a dowry when you get married. The input-output ratio is too low.

The Jacob family was lucky to meet Alice.How can Jacob's father be regarded as a craftsman, a skilled worker, as long as he is given a stable job, he can support his family; Jacob himself is also very competitive, and has become the most indispensable loyal servant around Alice.His family was originally in a nearby village, and Alice gave him and Sidney a day off, so that their brother and sister could go back to visit relatives. For them, this was also a homecoming.The two brothers and sisters eat well and dress well at Austin's house, and both have received education. They are no longer the village boys and girls they used to be.

Anna doesn't like to tell people about herself, so the Austin family didn't know about Claire until now. Cathy quickly wrote home and told her parents that Anna's cousin adopted a little girl. Also very good.Anna can do some specific things, so she won't be bored at home all day.

Alice lived in Oxfordshire for a month, during which time Jacob took her for walks in the fields.Just after the spring plowing, we have to be busy weeding. At this time, there are no pesticides such as Miecaoling, all of which are done by hand.Weeding is not a heavy physical work, and girls can do it, so they go to the fields to weed at dawn, and go home to have breakfast after finishing the work.Wheat is mostly grown here, as well as high-yielding crops such as corn and potatoes. Peanuts are used for oil extraction and peanut dregs can be fed to pigs. There are also a lot of peanuts, but at this time the peanuts have just emerged and have not yet bloomed.

As for the types of vegetables grown in the vegetable field, there are many types of vegetables that can be seen in most markets, and some people grow a lot of tomatoes. Now the English people are eating more and more tomatoes, mostly for soup. , the children eat it as fruit, and put some tomatoes in the stew, sour and sweet with a unique flavor.

Vegetable prices are very cheap, a few shillings can buy a lot of vegetables.

Strolling around several nearby villages, Alice also gained knowledge of the current situation of the working people at the bottom of the English countryside in this era.

Farmers are also profit-seeking, this is human nature, and they also want to help future generations escape the poverty of being trapped on the land, but because their education level can't keep up, some people are because they have no money, and some people are purely stupid. And "stupid" is mostly because they have not received basic education, so they cannot learn some technical work. For example, if you are a carpenter, you must be able to understand drawings, right?Master carpenters don't want to take apprentices with no foundation, you have to learn to spell.

The level of education seriously restricts the income of the rural population. They can only find a living on the land and work hard to get a very meager income: they have to pay land rent and eat for themselves, and there is very little land left that can be used for material exchange.

The local church opened a small school to teach children to spell, but often the children are not determined at first and always want to play; secondly, after a few years of learning, they have to work for the family or go out when they are 10 to 12 years old. As an apprentice, few people can go all the way to 15 years old, and the educational results are not significant.

Alice donated 30 pounds to each church that set up the primary school, which is enough to run the primary school for a year.

Sidney felt that the little master was very kind, and tentatively asked if the family still needed servants. The second son of her uncle's family should have reached the age to work and earn money.

"He can't come to my house anymore. We can only have your brothers and sisters in my house." Alice refused. "But he can try to work at Cousin Anna's house. Kitchen help is always required. How old is he?"

"13 is old."

"Can you spell?"

"Learned a little."

"You see, Jacob was only 10 years old when he was my playmate, and he already learned a lot of words. You have to know that only those who are willing to study hard will have a better future. Jacob will definitely be my manager in the future. , his children can go to regular schools, as long as his children work hard enough, decades later, no one will remember that your family came from a small village in Oxfordshire."

"Miss Alice." Sidney was very excited.

"It's the same with you. You will follow me in the future. You will be my housekeeper. If you get married and have children in the future, I will send them to regular schools, but you'd better not have too many children. You Parents have had too many children, and if it was just you and Jacob, your family could do well without leaving Camborne."

Sidney is often brainwashed by her little master, and she has a good understanding of "women should not have too many children". She has a deep understanding of the disadvantages of having too many children in the family. When she was a child, she was always hungry and crying in the middle of the night. This is not a good thing Childhood memory, it wasn't until my brother started sending money home that the family situation got better.

Alice believes that having 6 children is the upper limit. After all, the mortality rate of infants and young children in this era is too high, and it is difficult to guarantee that the children can live to adulthood; like the Austin family, all 9 children survived (George’s brother’s illness was an accident, and After all, he didn’t die), he was very lucky; because Jacob’s family had no money to see a doctor, three children died successively.

Of course, it is impossible for her to limit the number of children the servants have. You control the world, and you can control the husband and wife going to bed to make a man?That’s why we need opportunities to educate and brainwash the Jacob brothers and sisters at any time: we need children, but it’s not good to have too many children. 4 children are ideal, 6 children are barely enough, 8 children, my God!Think how much it will cost you to raise a child!

Calculating the financial accounts, the Jacob brothers and sisters were frightened by the cost, and they all said that it is better to be less and more efficient.

Now that I have arrived in Oxfordshire, I naturally have to stop by Oxford University to visit my boyfriend.

Jacob was first sent there and rented a room in a hotel near Oxford University.Jacob took a look around the hotel, and thought it was quite messy. Most of the long-term tenants in the hotel are students, keeping long-term or short-term mistresses, and there are those who rent for a few days. Of course, you understand the usefulness , this kind of hotel is certainly not suitable for young ladies from good families.

So I rented a small villa of a country gentry in a place a little farther away, saying that it was for the Miss Austin family to live in, that is, the Miss Austin Typewriter Company, and I rented it smoothly, and paid a week's rent in advance.

In the first week of May, Cathy took Alice to Oxford again.

Oxford University was established hundreds of years ago. For hundreds of years, the surrounding buildings around the school's teaching buildings and dormitory buildings have continued to increase. The entire campus has no walls, and teaching buildings, dormitories, and libraries are interspersed with residential buildings, churches, and urban areas. Located in the Thames River area, the Charville River, a tributary of the Thames River, passes through the city, and boats pass by on the river from time to time.

Higher buildings such as churches and college drum towers were mostly built in the Middle Ages. Gothic architectural styles were popular at that time, and Gothic spires can be seen everywhere on the campus. They are also uniquely unified with the architectural styles of later generations. charm.

It is also common for students' parents, brothers and sisters to visit, but it is only in the dating stage, not yet engaged, and it is rare for girls from good backgrounds to visit their boyfriends.Cathy and Anna didn't quite understand the difference during this period, while Alice believed that it was right for boyfriend and girlfriend to visit each other after they were separated, so she didn't think too much about it.

Ivo happily took her for a stroll around the campus, showed her the teaching building where he had classes, and took her to his small dormitory building.Alice toured his bedroom with Cathy, and was pleased to find her portrait of him on the bedside table.

Ivo very well-behaved and said that he would never lose the things she sent again.

Alice remained at Oxford for another ten days before returning to London.

On the way, I passed Steventon and stayed at the house of my eldest brother James for two days. I took my niece Anna back to London. Anna was also at the age to learn lady education.

After returning to London, Alice began to revise the new book.

The title of the new book "The Princess Who Kidnapped the Dragon" tells a weird and interesting medieval story about a princess, a knight and a dragon. The protagonist is still a fragile girl who becomes stronger. The essence is still a growth story plus an adventure story. The twist at the end is unexpected.

After the revision is completed, it is still first shown to Brother Henry for review, and then sent to Mr. Beckford for review.

Susan Beckford inexplicably liked this book crazily, and couldn't wait to finish reading it, and couldn't wait to write to her, saying that she liked it very much.

When the two of them met next time, Susan praised her endlessly, saying how could there be such a beautiful story in her little head, she couldn't wait for the new book to be released, and she would let everyone she knew book it of.

"Your last book was too heavy for my liking. I love this one. Princess Louise is amazing! I love her so much!"

"Do you like the ending too?" Alice asked wonderingly.

"I like it! I like it so much! This is how Princess Louise should be in my mind! Simply! Clean! No nonsense!"

"Does Mr. Beckford like it too?"

"Oh, he likes it. He thinks your writing is very good and your writing skills are perfect, but he still thinks you have to write some realistic subjects, and you may not be able to write well in a few years, after all, you haven't gone out yet. I have traveled. Do you want to travel? Maybe the two of us can go together?" Susan had a whim.

"As long as Mr. Beckford agrees." Thinking about it, Alice felt that this was not bad, maybe with Mr. Beckford.Probably the nice thing about traveling with a smart guy is that he always has a different opinion, which can be fun.

"I'm worried that Mrs. Austin will disagree." Regarding the issue of the Austin family's decision, it was Pastor George in the early years. Since Pastor George retired, Mrs. Austin is in charge of major matters, and Alice is in charge of minor matters.

"If I go with Mr. Beckford, my mother should have no objection."

"Father is going to take me all over England to visit some relatives."

The author has something to say:

*It was only yesterday that I found out that the editor had changed my copywriting and deleted the two parallel comparison timelines.This is specially listed to give readers a more intuitive concept of the Austin era.

The timeline of this article begins in 1795, which is the last year of Emperor Qianlong’s reign in China’s Qing Dynasty. After that, Qianlong passed the throne to his son Jiaqing.

In 1789, France began the 41-year French Revolution.

In 1804, Napoleon became emperor.

In 1804, American explorers began to cross the North American continent. At this time, the United States was still in the territory of Indians from the Mississippi River to the west, and there were very few white people.

In 1790, the first group of British freedmen immigrated to Australia. For the previous 20 years, Australia was the place where British criminals were exiled.

From 1775 to 1783, it was the American War of Independence, and Grant Temple was born after the end of the War of Independence.

From 1861 to 1865, the American Civil War, also known as the Civil War, is the background era of "Gone with the Wind" and "Little Women".