Chapter 45: The Oxford Gentleman
Chapter 45 The Oxford Gentleman
Arthur and Elder sat in the front seat in the lecture hall of Gresham College.
Arthur’s ears were filled with the sound of a seething crowd and his nose was filled with the odor of expensive perfume.
The ladies were to be over seventy percent of the audience in the packed hall.
Every one of them was elegantly dressed.
Hanging bell like a wide skirt, petticoat heavy repeated as folds like stacked, from the fluffy like cotton candy skirt upward, but the ladies waist in the corset constraints of all the top of the slender, as if it were a swinging huge wings of the butterfly.
It wasn’t even summer yet, but as if by appointment, they had changed into short sleeves, as colorful and fluffy as flower buds bloomed at their shoulders, which were embellished with many decorations Arthur couldn’t even name.
The ladies’ choices varied when it came to taste in necklines.
The young ladies preferred to open a lower neckline and drape themselves in a small, semi-transparent, lacey cloak – a mantellet – from which their snow-white skin could be seen between the holes in the lace, as well as their collarbones as soft and slender as the horizon in a landscape painting.
As for the older, the choice is more conservative, most of them choose to surround a circle since the Renaissance has been very popular on the Ruff collar, covering the other position, only highlights like a swan as sinuous and beautiful neck, in the decoration of the gorgeous wide brim can not see the eyes of the ladies, only to vaguely find the ladies like bamboo like the tip of the nose, as well as the corners of the mouth seemingly with a three-pointed rhyme with the smile.
The charm of the young girl is winning in the youthful cute, and the lady’s hands and feet between the calm charm is also a different style.
Elder simply to see the eyes, he excitedly grabbed Arthur’s sleeve, although already tried to lower his voice, but still can imagine from his red cheeks and trembling voice line the boy’s body hormones soaring scene.
“Whoa! Arthur! Look at that lady! Look at her, she’s a real charmer! Oh, I dare not ask to be his mistress; I would die if I could be a little dog in her arms.”
“Heh heh! Arthur, look, that lady. Oh, dear! She’s flinging her skirts at me! My God, is she hinting at me?”
“Damn! I should have brought my sister today so I could have borrowed her to help me get hitched. She’ll think I’m uneducated if I go up and greet her so hastily.”
“Damn, science is great! God! Why didn’t you let me know about this place earlier; if I had known about it, then I wouldn’t have taken any classics.
What with Shelley and Byron, they’re shit! I’ve decided that from this day on, Sir Isaac Newton is the only sun in my heart!”
The gentleman sitting next to Arthur frowned at Elder’s piggish appearance and lowered his voice to speak at Arthur.
“Mr. Officer, the lecture is about to begin, would you please ask your friend to be quiet?”
Arthur calmly said, “No sir, you misunderstand, I don’t know him, I, like you, just happen to be sitting with him. But rest assured, as soon as the lecture is over, I will escort this public disruptor to Scotland Yard.”
The gentleman heard this, and with a few hugely apologetic smiles, he took off his hat and thanked him, “That’s very kind of you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Arthur glanced aside at Elder and explained for that gentleman, “You should know that it’s a well-known fact that people who graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Classics always look like him.”
That gentleman froze at that, “Is that what an Oxford graduate looks like?”
Elder couldn’t help but look back when he heard the keyword Oxford and asked, “Oxford? What Oxford?”
Arthur gave him a wink and asked, “Sir, may I ask which university you graduated from?”
Elder didn’t respond at first until Arthur stomped him.
He grunted a breath out of his nose and loosened his collar with a godly grip, “A proper Oxford gentleman who never shied away from his graduating institution.” Arthur turned back to the gentleman beside him and said, “You see, it’s just like I said.”
No sooner had Arthur finished speaking than the gentleman sitting behind him chimed in, “Yes, just like the officer gentleman said, all Oxford’s are like that.”
“May I ask where you graduated from?”
“Me?” The gentleman in the back row patted his chest proudly and said, “Cambridge.”
Elder, who was on the side, was about to answer, but before he could speak, he realized that the originally noisy venue had suddenly fallen silent.
The crowd looked up to see that at some point a middle-aged gentleman had arrived on the lectern, wearing a bright red bow tie, a white shirt underneath, and an old but neat dark black suit over his jacket.
Under his command, the staff of the Royal Society was carrying the laboratory equipment that would be used in the upcoming speech.
In the quiet hall, I wonder who shouted, “Mr. Faraday, I’ll always support you!”
The gentleman on the stage couldn’t help but blush and show a coy smile when he heard these words, and he kindly waved his fai hand towards the stage.
It was fine if he didn’t wave his hand, but when Faraday waved his hand, the hall immediately resounded with thunderous applause and cheers.
Seeing this, Elder couldn’t help but sigh, ”Oh my god! My cousin really didn’t lie to me, Michael Faraday is really the most popular scientist in the Royal Society! Look at those ladies, they’re all standing up and applauding his achievements.”
Arthur stared at Faraday for half a day before shaking his head, “I think it may not just be the scientific accomplishments, but his appearance and demeanor alone that makes him more than a match for most of the men in the room.
Still, seeing him here really gives me a sense of wonder, after all, the last time I saw him was in a textbook.”
Elder was surprised, “Do you still teach chemistry in your history department?”
Arthur shook his head, “It wasn’t learned in college, it was in middle school.”
Elder touched his head, “Is your secondary school education in Yorkshire so up to date? Our middle school there still teaches some grammar, rhetoric and such. Arthur, no wonder you can become a police inspector at a young age, science is really a good thing.”
Red Devil Agares squatted on the back of Arthur’s chair and spoke with a bad smile, “Arthur, do you envy this Faraday? Don’t worry, as long as you listen to me, you can be just like him in the future.”
Just as Agares finished saying this, Faraday stood on the lectern.
He cleared his throat and the quiet hall resounded with his not too big but clear and magnetic voice, just like his research results.
“Good afternoon, gentlemen and ladies.”
Just as Faraday finished speaking, another round of applause erupted from the stage.
As soon as Faraday raised his hand, the applause immediately stopped, and he said with a smile, “I know that many of you, probably think that I’m still going to talk about chemistry today. But unfortunately, I may have to disappoint you all today.
In fact, I was assigned by my mentor, Sir Humphrey Davy, to move towards the field of electricity a few years ago. It is only because I am naturally stupid that I have not been able to achieve much in recent years, making me afraid to appear on the lecture platform as an electrical researcher.
However, from today onwards, all of this will be different. I’m about to present to you all for the first time my latest research result – the phenomenon of electromagnetic induction!”
(End of chapter)