"Trouble!" Jérôme Bonaparte nodded and replied to the old woman.
"You're welcome, sir!" The old woman's old and wrinkled face showed a kind smile, and then she asked Jerome Bonaparte if he wanted to add some sugar cubes or milk.
"Add some sugar! It doesn't need to be too sweet!" Jerome Bonaparte said to the old woman with a smile.
After a while, the old woman respectfully handed a cup of coffee to Jérôme Bonaparte and whispered: "Sir, please wait a moment before drinking!"
Jérôme Bonaparte said "Yeah", and then talked about Marigot with the old woman.
The old woman told Jérôme Bonaparte that Marigot met a prince from the Kingdom of Belgium two days ago, and the two were developing rapidly recently.
"However, according to my observation, I found that Miss Marigot did not seem to like that prince! She seemed to be forced to communicate with that prince under some pressure!" the old woman replied to Jerome Bonaparte, and then
Secretly looking at Jerome Bonaparte with his peripheral vision.
Jérôme Bonaparte's face showed a hint of shame. He knew that the reason why Marigot and Leopold were together was entirely because of his despicable and shameless use of France's righteousness to oppress her.
"However, that prince was very generous! He paid our lady a large sum of money!" the old woman continued to respond to Jérôme Bonaparte.
"Isn't this just a solicitation... a prostitute?" Jérôme Bonaparte realized that it was inappropriate to say "recruiting prostitutes" and quickly changed his words.
"Sir, being able to be taken care of by someone in Paris is considered a lucky thing!" The old woman replied to Jérôme Bonaparte in an experienced tone: "Many people don't have this opportunity even if they want to be taken care of!
Just like the residents above us, they dream of being taken care of!"
"The residents upstairs?" Jérôme Bonaparte looked stunned, and then immediately asked the old woman who the residents on the two floors above were.
The old woman pointed to the ceiling above her head and replied to Jérôme Bonaparte: "The residents on the floor above us are mostly trainee lawyers and young accountants wandering in Paris, as well as some with beautiful dreams.
Dancers and students from other provinces!
Each one of them longs for the opportunity to rise to prominence. The dancer hopes that she can be appreciated by dignitaries and become a respected aristocratic lady overnight.
College students from other provinces hope to enter the upper class society by studying law.
After all, in our country, the law is one of the shortcuts to get close to the upper class. (The fastest ones are journalists)
But, I bet every one of them has very little hope of success!
Paris is a city full of dreams and hopes, but also a city full of sadness and despair.
I have lived in Paris for almost 30 years and I have never seen anyone really take off!
The vast majority of dancers will spend their youth in confusion. Those who are more lucky will be able to save up their dowry and leave Paris, return to their parents and find an honest and flattering person to marry. Dancers who are less lucky will
Died in torment of illness.
And those future lawyers with dreams will finish their lives in one lawsuit after another..."
Jerome Bonaparte listened quietly to the old woman's speech, and then responded: "Old man, are you a little too pessimistic when you say this?"
"How pessimistic!" The old woman smiled slightly and said to Jérôme Bonaparte: "Sir, I guess you must be a nobleman of extraordinary birth!"
"Huh? Where did you see it?" Jérôme Bonaparte asked the old woman.
"My eyes have not aged like my body!" The old woman pointed to her eyes and replied to Jerome Bonaparte with extreme confidence.
"It's barely enough!" Jérôme Bonaparte responded ambiguously to the old woman, "But what does this have to do with what I just said!"
"Sir, because you are a nobleman, the education you have received and the path you have planned since you were born are very different from those of the people above. It can be said that you have been destined to stand in a certain position since you were born.
It is difficult for a person to reach heights throughout his life!
Therefore, the message you receive is very different from that of those people!
Allow me, an old woman, to say some unpleasant things. In the eyes of nobles at the same level as you, we are probably just a bunch of data!" the old woman replied to Jérôme Bonaparte.
Indeed, recently when the secretariat put the disaster situation (floods in August and September) in various provinces in front of Jerome Bonaparte, when Jerome Bonaparte saw the death toll in the disaster
, I was still glad that less than a thousand people died.
If you think about it carefully, it is really a terrible thing that hundreds of living people were swept away and disappeared by the sudden flood.
Each of them affects the harmony of a family, and the disappearance of a few hundred people means the sadness of at least a thousand to two thousand people.
The fluctuations caused by these data at the time were not as dramatic as those experienced by Jérôme Bonaparte when he witnessed the deaths of soldiers in the Crimean Peninsula.
"You are right!" Jérôme Bonaparte nodded and acknowledged what the old woman said.
"You can see just a series of numbers, but we can feel it all!" the old woman responded to Jérôme Bonaparte, "Sir, I am not pessimistic, and we live in a pessimistic world.
!”
Go on, the old woman bowed to Jérôme Bonaparte and said: "I, an old woman, have been too talkative just now, please forgive me!"
"Old man, what you said is very good!" Jerome Bonaparte responded to the old woman with a kind face, and then continued to ask, "By the way, you haven't said what the top two floors are!"
"The top two floors!" The old woman sighed and replied to Jérôme Bonaparte: "If there is hope of staying in Paris on the upper floor, then there is no hope at all on the top two floors!
The fifth floor is home to female workers from a nearby textile factory, and the sixth floor is also home to construction workers who are working on nearby projects! They usually have five or six people crowded into a small room, and because no one is needed to serve them, every month
The rent needed is very little.
(Landlords in Paris often act as servants and waiters. When there is no one to serve, the rent is extremely cheap. "Patriot Goriot" is a typical example.)
Every day they are the first ones to go out, and they are also the last ones to come back every night!"
"That's really hardworking!" Jerome Bonaparte sighed with emotion.
"Diligence? What's the use of hard work! If hard work can make you rich, then they are the richest people in the world!
Unfortunately, they only earn about 3-5 francs a day from early morning to late night. (Each worker's salary is about 1,600 francs per year, and female workers earn 80% of male workers, which is 1,200 francs.)
Their salary for a year is not enough to cover Miss Marigot's expenses for a month!" The old woman sighed at the fate of the top two floors. "To be honest, sir, I used to have a certain prejudice against those people and thought that their
The purpose of existence is to discredit Paris!
As I got more and more contact with them, I found that they were just like us and had similar dreams to us!
Our city cannot live without them, but many people in our city still think that they are the black spots of Paris and want to drive them away completely!”
"Hey!" Jerome Bonaparte sighed and said to the old woman: "People can't understand each other!"
Later, Jérôme Bonaparte asked the old woman in a casual tone what she thought of the empire.
In his opinion, old women should be the type of people who are relatively dissatisfied with the rule of the empire.
"To be honest, I am quite satisfied with the emperor's rule!" The old woman's answer was beyond Jérôme Bonaparte's expectations.
"Why?" Jérôme Bonaparte asked curiously.
"Sir, I have experienced the Bourbon dynasty (here refers to the two generations of Bourbons. In the eyes of ordinary people, there is no difference between the two generations of Bourbons). Their wages are nearly 20% lower than they are now, and their wages are
Prices are even higher than they are now!
So if I had to choose one among the three, I would rather choose the current empire!"
"Where is the Republic?" Jérôme Bonaparte asked the old woman again.
"Republic? Are you referring to the regime that cannot even effectively control prices?" The old woman replied to Jérôme Bonaparte in a contemptuous tone: "Sir, please forgive me, there is no regime better than that regime.
Even worse!"
While Jérôme Bonaparte was talking to the old woman, there was a knock on the door.
"This time I should say Mademoiselle Marigot!" the old woman replied to Jérôme Bonaparte, then stood up and went to open the door.
When the old woman opened the door, Marigot happened to be standing at the door.
"Miss, the guests are already seated!" the old woman said to Marigot.
"Guest!" Marigot was stunned for a few seconds, then looked behind the old woman.
Jerome Bonaparte stood up and pointed to his wig and the glued-on beard as a hint to Marigot. Marigot quickly understood and nodded: "That's right!"
Immediately Marigot entered the room, Jerome Bonaparte hurriedly shook hands with Marigot and said first: "Miss Marigot, do you remember me! I am Jerome Patterson!"
"Mr. Patterson, of course I remember you!" Marigot responded to Jérôme Bonaparte.
Immediately afterwards, Jérôme Bonaparte gave the prepared birthday gift to Marigot and personally put it on for Marigot.
Then Jérôme Bonaparte and Marigot had a sumptuous lunch together, which was regarded as Jérôme Bonaparte fulfilling Marigot's wish.