Chapter 222: Arthur’s Utilitarianism
Chapter 220 Arthur’s Utilitarianism
Coburg Theater’s second-floor box, Arthur surveyed the spacious, decorated with mahogany cabinets, soft sofas, and a wide-open view of the room, can not help but a little headache.
Although he had emphasized with the theater staff beforehand that he only needed a room with a more private location that would not attract too much attention.
But ……
Arthur’s residual light glimpsed the exquisite bed in the center of the room, and he felt that the staff member had clearly misunderstood his intention.
The two people’s understanding of the word seclusion was obviously different.
But having a box was better than not having one, plus the concert was about to start, so it was definitely too late to change seats temporarily.
Both come and go, the living can’t let the urine suffocate.
Arthur looked around and finally decided to tuck Dumas under the bed.
“Alexander, just bear with it. Tonight’s concert will only be three or four hours, so it’s okay for you to lie here and sleep.”
Dumas was of course 10,000 times more reluctant to Arthur’s decision, but naturally his hands and feet were tied behind his back, and even his mouth was gagged.
Arthur was full of apologies, “I know this is not right for you, but this is the safest way. If you have any opinions, you’d better mention them now. If you don’t say anything, I’ll take it as your tacit approval ah.”
With those words, Arthur and Tom tucked the difficult French fat man under the bed.
After tidying up the chaotic order here, Arthur finally had the time to light his pipe and exhaled a gust of smoke after taking a long drag.
Tom wore white gloves while carefully flipping through today’s plan of action, he stared at the above preliminaries one, two, three, four and frowned.
He somewhat incomprehensibly snapped, “Although it’s kinda nice to have so many scenarios, is …… it necessary to write all the rules and regulations in such detail? You’re almost catching up with the laws made by the parliament.”
Arthur smiled as he smoked and spoke, “In this day and age, it might not be necessary to go this far against others, but today’s opponent is François Vidocq. Most of our Scotland Yard’s crime investigation regulations are based on France’s Grand Paris Police Department Police Regulations, and more than half of the regulations therein were formulated with Mr. Vidocq’s participation. We’d better be careful when facing such a man.”
“Huh?” Hearing this, Tom became interested for a moment, “Did he also participate in formulating the police regulations? Which of those regulations of ours are related to him?”
Arthur just grinned when he heard that, “It’s a shame Tony isn’t here today today, or else he could have gotten his revenge.”
“What do you mean?”
Arthur laughed, “Almost all of those prohibitions that Tony is most annoyed with are mandated by Mr. Vidocq. For example: police officers are not allowed to make friends with unsavory members of society, they are not allowed to gamble, they are not allowed to be in debt, they are not allowed to be unkempt, and they are not allowed to drink …… Anyway, seventy to eighty percent of Scotland Yard’s no-nos have to do with Mr. Vidocq, and as for the remaining two to three percent they are derived from Mr. Vidocq’s foundation. Do you think Tony would have to fight Mr. Vidocq on the spot if he knew about this?”
Hearing this, Tom couldn’t help but giggle, “So all those bullshit rules were made by him, it seems that the Parisian police’s life is not easier than ours.”
Arthur laughed: “If he really dares to come over today, Tom, you know what to do. It’s not a big deal to give two hard blows, although Mr. Vidocq is very famous, but after all, he is only the head of the security department of the Paris Police Department. From the point of view of authority, he is also the same level as me, the most important thing is that he can not control you.
Of course, don’t directly beat someone to death, in hard count, he is still a member of the French diplomatic delegation’s entourage, if there is a fatality, we can’t be accountable to the higher-ups.”
Hearing this, Tom’s nervousness relaxed, and he smiled back, “Don’t worry, I have a sense of proportion in what I’m going to do. But then again, this kind of opportunity to beat up a high-ranking police officer doesn’t come along often, last time when Tony and I beat up Sergeant Willox, I didn’t have the right timing, this time I will never let the opportunity slip through my fingers again.”
Speaking of which, Tom asked, “By the way, does that Mr. Vidocq have any physical features?”
Arthur thought for a moment and shrugged his shoulders, “That’s the hard part, Mr. Vidocq is very good at disguising himself, from the poor to the rich, from a young man in his twenties to an old man in his sixties or seventies. In addition to the usual French flair, he combines a head with an excellent memory with a cunning personality.”
Tom joked, “Arthur, look at you. Blowing Mr. Vidocq off like he’s the Napoleon of the police force.”
Arthur also joked, “That’s really what some people call him in Paris.”
Tom laughed, “So you’re the Wellington of our Scotland Yard?”
“We’re facing an even more unfavorable situation now than we did at Waterloo.” Arthur joked, “His Excellency the Duke at least waited for German support, while we are now left to our own active defense.”
Just as Arthur finished his words, a knock sounded outside the box.
Arthur frowned and made a wink at Tom, and only after he was sure that his trusted subordinate had finished concealing himself did he slowly pull open the door to the room. With one hand on the doorknob, he pressed the civilized cane pinned to the belt of his pants with one hand behind his back.
Only a creak was heard as the door to the room pulled open, however the face that appeared in front of Arthur was a straight up bummer.
It was Elder, whose face was flushed red and who looked so excited that he looked as if he were about to drive down the railroad from London to Liverpool.
“Arthur, I knew you must be here!”
Arthur stuck his head out and looked down both sides of the building until he was sure no one was following him, then he grabbed him into the room.
He closed the door behind him and opened his mouth to ask, “Damn! Elder, didn’t I tell you not to come looking for me until the show was over today?”
Elder covered his pounding little heart and said, “Arthur, if it was anything else, you could have told me not to look for you for a year. But this thing, I had to take it out and share it with you, my best friend.”
Arthur frowned, “What? Did you win the lottery on a horse this afternoon?”
Elder waved his hand, “That’s not true, the horse I bought this afternoon ran dead last today.”
Arthur sniffed and congratulated, “Congratulations.”
“Arthur! I told you it wasn’t about that!”
Elder’s face was on the verge of bursting into a smile, “Never mind, I’m in a good mood today, so I won’t bother with you about this. You know what? It’s possible that I’ve harvested a true love, I just picked up a chick, you don’t even know how good her body really is, she’s five feet nine inches tall, white googly-eyed face, and has long light blonde hair. My God! There aren’t many girls in London that stand out like that, and it just so happened that I picked her up.”
Arthur sniffed and just sipped his cigarette, “Eldad, while it’s true that we’re best friends, and that girl sounds wonderful, there’s no need to share her with me, either from the standpoint of Catholicism, Protestantism, or the traditional morals of Britannia.”
“What good are you thinking?!” Elder glared, “Arthur, you can’t do anything else for less, but if you hit on her, don’t blame me for not treating you like a brother.”
At the end of his sentence, Elder stuck his head out again and looked behind Arthur, “Where’s Alexander? I’m going to piss him off with this.”
“Alexander?” Arthur feigned confusion, “I don’t know, I thought he was with you.”
Elder just muttered at that, “Heh, I guess that fat bastard’s gone off to spend his days somewhere again. But I can certainly have a better day than him. By the way, Arthur, you guys don’t have to wait for me to come home tonight, I’ve got some business of my own to take care of.”
Arthur scratched his temples, “What about tomorrow night?”
“Tomorrow night?” Elder tugged divinely at his collar and turned to walk away, “I might just move out of your house tomorrow night.”
“Okay.” Arthur looked at Elder’s excited look and wanted to say something, but out of friendship, he politely reminded, “Elder.”
“What’s wrong?” Elder stopped walking, turned his head and smiled playfully, “Arthur, don’t be jealous. Your appearance is not bad, if you look hard enough, you’ll definitely be much better than me.”
Arthur just raised his hand to signal him to stop, “That’s not what I’m talking about.”
“Huh?”
Arthur exhaled a faint smoke ring, “If you don’t return for three days, I’ll have you treated as missing.”
“Fuck off.” Elder laughed and cursed, then raised his head and puffed out his chest, walking down the stairs like a Thames swan under royal patronage.
No sooner had Elder left than Dumas’s head came out from under the bed, and the fat man protested, “Are you sure you don’t want to keep an eye on Elder’s stupid ass tonight? I have a feeling he’s in a little more danger than I am. Doesn’t he have to think about what kind of a woman in her right mind could find this kid attractive?”
Arthur raised an eyebrow at the sprawled out Dumas and nodded, “I’d agree with that, the ladies who can look at Elder are usually pretty smart, just like the last time Fiona had her eye on you.”
He rested one hand on the edge of the door and leaned over with his arms wrapped around his body frowning in thought for half a day before finally speaking, “Just, let’s leave him be for now. If Elder’s lost, the most I can do is find him in the Thames, and given the amount of time, there might be some room for redemption.
But, Alexander, if it’s you who’s lost it, I guess I’ll have to take a boat to France and fish you out of the Seine. The difference in difficulty between the two is a world apart. It would be neither economical nor practical to give you up to keep an eye on Elder.
I’m sure Elder will understand me if something does happen to him in the end. As a graduate of the same London University, he should know what utilitarianism means.”
(End of chapter)