Granville's estate

Marriage is merely a means of paying debts, and not a holy union under the blessing of the gods—this statement is simply unacceptable to a devout believer, but it cannot be denied that compared with the bride's appearance, upbringing and Morality, what most suitors pay more attention to is the dowry amount that her father can give. After all, it is not uncommon in this era to be unwilling to sign the dowry list because the dowry is too small, which leads to the destruction of the marriage contract.

"In this way, the gentleman would rather marry a dowry without a dowry than a bride without a dowry." Louis said, he suddenly thought of Alred's sister Madeleine—the The girl is still in the monastery. Earl Fernand said that he can only prepare a dowry of [-] francs for her at most: "Do you know how much dowry a count needs to prepare if he wants to marry off his daughter?" dowry?"

"Why did you ask this suddenly?" Callister asked. He guessed what Louis wanted to ask after just thinking for a while: "Your friend has unmarried sisters? A young man from a well-matched family must have at least 20 francs ready for a marriage contract; of course, if the lady is strong enough or charming enough, she may find someone who will marry her without a dowry."

20 francs——Louis couldn't help but gasp, he understood why Alredé fell headfirst into Sologne's trap.

"What if you can't come up with so much dowry?"

"This is a problem that many nobles will face. Some people will choose to keep their daughters in a monastery to serve God for the rest of their lives. Those who never get married naturally don't need such things as dowry."

Not because of pious beliefs, but because there is not enough dowry, she was forced to enter the monastery and never marry for life-for a noble lady, such an ending was a bit too cruel: "But that Mr. Napoleon issued a decree before It is stipulated in the law that daughters and sons should have equal inheritance rights..."

"This is the problem. If this code is strictly followed, most nobles will send their daughters to the monastery, and at the same time require all sons other than the eldest son to sign a declaration of renunciation of inheritance rights, so as to ensure that the family's foundation will not be destroyed. Scatter and lead to the decline of the family."

Callister explained to Louis that the power of the primogeniture system, which has been passed down for thousands of years, is so powerful, and in order to protect the status of the family from declining, the nobles will definitely abandon other children except the eldest son: "Don't you see As for the gentleman who treated his wife rudely just now? His father just didn't want to distribute the property to the second son, so he concluded such a marriage for him. I dare say that he has signed the agreement on the re-division of the inheritance share at the same time as the marriage. contract."

Louis wanted to say something more, but Callister thought the topic should be over, he clapped his hands, and then Cabo came in from the door, followed by a waiter from the Rose Club.

"Sir, would you like lunch now?"

Cabo asked with a smile, just like the waiter here, he had already taken off the coat he was wearing, but he didn't hold it in his hand, it should have been handed over to the club people for safekeeping like Louis's cloak.

"It can be delivered now." Callister said, he turned his head and glanced at Louis: "The steak and dessert here are not bad, I think you should like it."

"Actually, I'm not hungry yet."

Louis replied in a low voice, he got up too late this morning, so although it was time for lunch, he was not very hungry.

"It's okay, we don't need to have a very formal meal, we can spend a few hours playing and eating at the same time - there is no need to rush for lunch." Callister said, pointing to the box in the private room The bookshelf that is almost integrated into the wall: "There are newspapers, illustrated magazines and books here, as well as whist and tarot cards. Whether you want wine or cigars, you can ask them to bring them-but, don't you smokers, right?"

"My father doesn't allow me to smoke. He thinks it's a greedy vice." Louis said, and he noticed that although this box is small, it is equipped with bookshelves, cabinets and furniture like the small living room on the first floor below. Tables, chairs, and even a comfy little sofa in the corner, enough to comfortably spend the day here.

"Are these books yours, or Mrs. Maurice Srpon's?"

He walked to the bookshelf as tall as a person, looked at the books on it, and found that almost all of them were books about travel notes, histories, and legends and anecdotes about various countries, while serious writings and religious gospels could not be found here. to any trace.

"Part of it is mine, and sometimes I'll hang out here for hours without thinking about anything, and it's good for a tight mind," said Callister, who also came over, quite casually. He took out a copy of "How to Prepare a Banquet" from the bookshelf and showed it to Louis. After being stunned for a while, Louis burst out laughing: "Holy Virgin Mary! It turns out that you also need to think about 'how to prepare a banquet'." Question? I thought you'd leave it all to your butler and cook."

"The housekeeper cannot replace all the responsibilities of the master. This is the cultivation that a qualified master should have. Although with the changes of the times, this book is no longer so timely." Callister said solemnly, he still He flipped through the book and showed it to Louis: "Look, for example, in this chapter, 'How to Cut a Wild Boar Elegantly', every nobleman in the past had to practice this skill hard, so that My own wit and quickness can impress the king at the banquet."

Louis leaned over and glanced at the opened page with the viscount's hand: on the page was a huge wild boar with tusks, which was laid out after being roasted. An attacking posture seems to rush towards people in the next second; however, there are at least hundreds of iron forks inserted into the wild boar at the same time. Perhaps the cook at that time wanted to use this method to show that it had been burned. Burnt off the thick sideburns, the result is that this huge and hideous beast suddenly becomes quite comical.

"My God, it looks like a hedgehog!"

The illustration looks really interesting, and the person who edited the book also wrote next to the illustration how to deal with this kind of spoils on the table. The first sentence is "Draw your sword and chop off the head of the wild boar You must show a certain manliness." This made Louis endure and endure, but he still couldn't help laughing: "My God, do you want to fight wild boars at the dinner table?"

"For the nobles before the seventeenth century, it was naturally a kind of struggle, except that the opponents were other nobles, and the spoils were the king's admiration and the admiration of the ladies."

"This is really a trouble that only nobles have." Louis said, he couldn't imagine the scene of Callister drawing out his long sword at a banquet and declaring war on a wild boar on the dining table, but this was not the case. The mood that hindered him suddenly became cheerful: "Can I have a look at this book? Now I am curious what kind of food the nobles in the Middle Ages would provide to their guests besides a whole wild boar." Dishes."

"All the animals and cooking methods you can imagine can be found here." Callister replied, but he did not hand him the book as Louis requested, but turned to the next page as if nothing had happened: "Look, they'll also roast a whole peacock and put gorgeous feathers on it, as if it was still alive, but then the nobles in charge of cutting up the peacock will have a more difficult problem... ..."

In this way, Louis can only look at this very interesting cookbook in the hands of Callister. As the Viscount mentioned, the book contains dozens of cooking methods for precious wild animals , including fawns, swans, peacocks, antelopes, wild boars, wild ducks, pheasants, etc.; and there are quite detailed descriptions of how to gracefully handle these delicacies on the table, although in the eyes of those who don't understand, some descriptions are quite Funny: "Take its horn and tame that antelope" "Break off the swan's wings and show its grace" "With a knife instead of a finger, give it a beautiful scar"... If people only see these without a worthy With the text description of the picture, they may even think that what the guests are going to participate in is actually a battle with wild beasts!

This was so interesting that Louis was fascinated by it without knowing it. It wasn't until Cabo knocked on the door of the private room and walked in that Louis suddenly realized that—unknowingly, he and The distance between Callister seems to be too close.

"Sir, Mr. Louis." Carbo said to the two people in the private room, he seemed to have not noticed Louis' unnatural look at all: "The chef of the club has recently figured out a new kind of dessert, they made rose petals and elderberries The wood flower petals are slowly boiled together in syrup and poured over freshly picked strawberries and apricots - something quite special and I think Mr Louie will love it."