Chapter 196: The background isn’t hard, but don’t touch it.

Chapter 195 The background isn’t hard, but don’t you touch it

Inside the alleyway outside of the Olmac Club, Arthur leaned against the white wall quietly smoking a cigarette.

While pondering over some small talk he had just had with Viscount Melbourne, he fished his pocket watch out of his pocket and glanced at it.

It was four forty-five in the afternoon, his side was all done, and it was logical that Elder should have come out long ago as well.

But he couldn’t come out from the left, and he couldn’t come out from the right, finally Arthur got tired of waiting, his back gave out slightly, and he toppled his body from the wall, and patted the dust on his sleeves to prepare to leave.

But when he had just reached the mouth of the alley, he saw a red-faced Elder walking towards him.

Elder beckoned, “Arthur, how was the harvest?”

Arthur leaned on a lamp post by the side of the road, “Nothing much, I merely chatted briefly with my future boss and kindly reminded him that I am not the only one among the senior police officers of Scotland Yard, even our head, Director Rowan, was personally selected by Sir Peel.

I believe that with His Excellency the Viscount’s wisdom, he should be able to clearly recognize that unless he intends to completely knock down and rebuild Scotland Yard, it would be impossible to remove Sir Peele’s mark from Scotland Yard completely.

As long as Viscount Melbourne can remain neutral in the factional fight in the Greater London Police Department, then I will have time to take my time with Director Rowan.”

Elder pulled his pipe from his pocket and asked, “What about George Norton’s appointment as Justice of the Peace at Westminster?”

“That?” Arthur pulled out his matchbook and tossed it over, “That one is less promising, Viscount Melbourne seems determined to do it. Though I don’t see how seeking a decent job for Mr. Norton would actually be of any use to him, he won’t admit that it’s out of love, so perhaps it’s out of friendship? Or perhaps there is something else hidden behind this that we don’t know about?”

Elder took a drag on his pipe and gulped, “So you’re not asking anything, are you? Just a little face time with Viscount Melbourne?”

Arthur shook his head, “Of course, don’t you know the social habits of the English well? He doesn’t trust me yet, so there are a lot of things he won’t say to me explicitly. And worst of all, I was having a private conversation with him on the second floor after I played.

If there had been a lady present, I might have been able to extract some useful information from him. After all, as you know, as long as there are ladies present, gentlemen will always quickly change the topic of conversation to highbrow topics such as history, politics, and philosophy, even if they were talking about some unappealing and nasty topics a second ago.”

Elder smiled broadly and said, “You say this seems to be true, as long as there is a lady present in social occasions, those old rogues put a fart can be extended into an economic crisis.

Whether it is learned, or uneducated, when the ladies face, always have to come on a few Shakespeare, or Plato and Aristotle or something.”

Arthur was doing fine, but he felt something strange when he heard this, “Are you talking about me again?”

Elder sniffed and waved his hand without much concern, “No, no, no, Arthur, you’re overthinking it, you’re not like them, whether it’s in front of a lady or a man, you always say that. But how on earth did you work out all these strange theories of yours?”

“How was it researched?” Arthur leaned against the lamppost and recalled with a raised eyebrow, “I don’t remember exactly how I came to that conclusion. But it was a conclusion I came to while talking to Eliza at the prom, and as you know, I don’t know how to dance, and neither does Eliza, so we talked all night at the prom that day.”

Elder laughed oddly at this as he took Arthur’s shoulder, “Eliza can’t dance? How in the world did you come to that conclusion? I’ll bet you anything that Eliza can dance, and she should be good at it.”

“How so?”

Elder said mysteriously, “Think about it, although our school is very deviant and doesn’t restrict women from sitting in on classes, it’s also relatively cautious and conservative on the point of admitting women to the school. Eliza, as an unmarried young lady, is able to come to the school every day without missing a single class to observe, what do you think that says about her?”

Arthur glanced at Elder, whose octogenarian attribute had exploded, and lit his pipe again, “What does it show?”

Elder covered his mouth with one hand, “It means that she is either rich or noble, either from a big merchant family or an aristocratic family, and most importantly, her family’s tutelage must also be relatively loose and doubly loving. Have you forgotten what happened to Professor Dempsey when that fool tried to lay his hands on her? The old bastard lost his life.”

Although Arthur didn’t know exactly how Elder connected these two things together, he couldn’t tell Elder:Professor Dempsey’s case was actually my doing.

Arthur smoothly sidetracked the question: “That said, how was your harvest today?”

“Me?” Elder didn’t say it outright, but grabbed his pockets and shook them, only to hear a cackling sound, the sound of coins clinking together.

“All right.” Arthur put out his cigarette, “Time to say no, even if you didn’t catch a thousand ladies, this little while should earn you more than you did in the Royal Navy.”

“There’s still a bit of time left until evening, what are we going to do next? Why don’t we call Alexander and we’ll find a theater to watch a play?”

“Well ……,” Arthur shook his head gently, “Alexander does need to be called up, but not to see a play, but to find him a magazine willing to publish The Count of Monte Cristo in serialized form.”

Elder asked, “But do you know anyone at the magazine?”

“I don’t, but Mrs. Norton does.”

Arthur clipped a business card out of his pocket, “In return for booking the gramophone for Mrs. Norton, she introduced me to the editor of Blackwood’s Literary Magazine. Although Mrs. Norton is not considered a well-known writer in all of Britain for the time being, she still has a small network of contacts in literary circles.

At the very least, she should be much better known in literary circles than our parliamentary candidate, Mr. Disraeli. With such a relationship, I believe Blackwood’s Magazine will be willing to receive us.”

With that said, Arthur reached out and stopped a car.

As the wheels of the carriage turned, Arthur and Elder soon drove away from King Street and disappeared in front of the Ormac Club.

But not long after they left, a dusty black carriage with a little mud splattered on its body slowly stopped in front of the Ormac Club.

The door of the carriage was pulled open, and a middle-aged man with a straight posture stepped out of the carriage sharply.

Simplified straight line tuxedo, linen shirt, delicate bow tie and black close-fitting pants tucked into leather boots, together with the meticulous hair and bowler hat, no matter who looks at it, one would think that this must be a strict gentleman who demanded the utmost in details.

As soon as he stepped out of the carriage, the guards of the Olmac Club were too busy to come forward and asked, “Mr. Brougham, what brings you here today?”

Brougham stroked his wrinkled white gloves, he didn’t seem to be in a hurry to go in, “Originally, after returning from York, I wanted to take a good rest. But I didn’t realize that halfway there I happened to run into a certain friend’s son who brought me some not-so-good news. So I felt I had to hurry and come to the club to talk to Mrs. Cowper, or to Viscount Melbourne directly. Are they both in to-day?”

The guard smiled and returned, “You’re in luck today, both of your Excellencies are inside.”

“That would be great.” Brougham dusted off his pants leg and was about to step inside.

But before he could enter, he ran face to face with Viscount Melbourne and Lady Norton, who were preparing to go home.

When Viscount Melbourne saw this savior who would most likely be promoted to Royal Chancellor, he couldn’t help but smile and said, ”Mr. Brougham? Congratulations on your victory in York, I was just about to talk to you about things.”

When Brougham heard this, he first gave a start, but soon he smiled and nodded slightly, “If you are willing to look for me to have a casual conversation, naturally I will be happy to accompany you at any time, but I just don’t know under what name you intend to talk to me?”

Melbourne naturally understood the other party’s subtext, he first let his servant stop a car for Mrs. Norton, then rushed to Brougham and spoke, “I hope it’s in the name of a friend.”

Brougham nodded slightly, “It just so happens that I also have a few things I would like to talk to you about.”

Melbourne smiled and joked, “Also in the name of a friend?”

Brougham shook his head gently as he smiled and shook Melbourne’s hand, “You guessed wrong, Your Excellency. I wish to speak to you about matters in the name of the founder of the University of London as well as the Chairman of the Council.”

(End of chapter)