Chapter 256: Fashion Spokesperson (K)
Chapter 255 – Fashion Advocate (4K)
Just as the little fellow was wondering which of the competitors this gentleman was presumably looking to cause trouble and was preparing to coax him out, the perfumer, who had been staying at the back and observing the commotion here, saw the situation and rushed out to say, “David!”
He stepped forward and detached the little fellow, “You go over there and keep an eye on it, this gentleman is a connoisseur, I’ll just receive him myself.”
Immediately after, the perfumer then asked with a smiling face, “Are you from Paris? Or more to the point, have you or your fathers ever served at the Imperial Court? I’ve heard my Mr. Rubin mention the cheese smell once, and not many people know about it!”
To Arthur’s surprise, the other man asked the question in French, but since the other man had this preconceived notion, Arthur didn’t mind showing off the play-acting skills he had learned from Vidocq.
To play a Frenchman well, the main idea was to get that unbeatable air.
As the Britons used to say, “What is the difference between a Frenchman and God? The difference is that God doesn’t think he’s a Frenchman, but the Frenchman thinks he’s God.
Elder also used to sneer at Alexandre Dumas, a guy whose farts floated upwards.
Arthur purposely slowed down his tone and slightly raised his chin forty-five degrees as he spoke, “Is that so? I don’t think it’s a secret, there should be at least three people I know who know about it just within the people I know.”
“Three people?” The perfumer sniffed with an increasingly humble attitude, “Can I take the liberty of asking, which three people are you talking about? Perhaps they are also our long-term customers.”
Arthur tugged at his collar and said in a godly manner, “An old cripple, a little fool and a big fat man.”
The perfumer heard this and pondered for a while, but after thinking about it for half a day he only guessed one of the answers, and the perfumer cautiously probed, “Dare I ask you, that old cripple in your mouth ……”
Arthur waved his hand straight away in feigned impatience, “The Peregrines.”
The perfumer immediately stood in awe as he exclaimed, “It is indeed Mr. Talleyrand!”
“This gentleman!” Arthur accused, lifting his cane in feigned anger, “Are you implying that I am insulting the wise and intelligent Monsieur Talleyrand as an old cripple?”
“Of course not.” The perfumer waved his hands back and forth as he pulled out a handkerchief to wipe his sweat while explaining, “Of course you meant no such thing, how could I dare to ruin your great friendship with Mr. Talleyrand?”
“Then it was you who insulted Mr. Talleyrand?” Arthur grunted, “I’ll have to have a word with him about this when I’m a guest at the embassy some day!”
“No, no, no!” The perfumer hurriedly discouraged, “Sir, I have no disrespect for Mr. Talleyrand. To tell you the truth, when I learned perfumery from Mr. Rubin in Paris, I always respected Mr. Talleyrand!”
Arthur said, “Is that so? You say you respect Mr. Talleyrand, do you have any evidence?”
Seeing Arthur’s disbelief, the perfumer hurriedly added, “Of course, of course I have proof! I know Mr. Talleyrand like the back of my hand, and every chance I get I have to ask the guys about him, dreaming that one day I will be able to be like Mr. Talleyrand in all kinds of high-society parties and salons. You probably know, Mr. Talleyrand in those years was fascinated by Madame Stair and Madame Recamier, the two noble and beautiful ladies also in the salon for him to fight over jealousy.”
Hmm? There’s a bonus?
Arthur asked at the top of his voice, “Is there more to this?”
Seeing his interest, the perfumer compensated with a smile while telling a story, “Of course, that was more than thirty years ago, when Mr. Talleyrand was still young. At that time, he was supposed to attend Madame Stair’s salon, but he was captured by Madame Récamier at the party, and the whole party practically revolved around her.
Madame de Staël was so angry that she asked Mr. Talleyrand: ‘If Madame Récamier and I both fell into the river, whom would you save?’
At the time the group thought that Mr. Talleyrand was surely going to have a bad day, after all, this question has long plagued men since centuries ago, but Mr. Talleyrand was undoubtedly groundbreaking with regard to this question.”
“What did he say?”
The perfumer laughed and returned, “Mr. Talleyrand said, ‘Madame, you are so great, surely you can swim!’ This reply made the group laugh, alas, look …… at me if I could talk half as well as Monsieur Talleyrand, I would probably have been a royal perfumer long ago.”
Arthur sniffed and pulled out a small notebook from his jacket pocket to casually jot down a couple sentences.
The perfumer was stunned by his action, and he said in confusion, “What are you doing?”
“Nothing.” Arthur spoke, “Like you, I have always been interested in Mr. Talleyrand’s anecdotes. But I’m a person with a bad memory, so I always need to write them down to be able to do so. I’ll have to tell this to the others at the next banquet as well.”
The perfumer didn’t say much about it, but he was still interested in the other two people Arthur had just mentioned, “I wonder if the little fool and the big fat man you just mentioned are ……”
Arthur sniffed and just raised an eyebrow in warning, “How can you insult an emperor and a world-class literary figure like that?” The perfumer froze, “I don’t know which one of the literary greats you are referring to, but isn’t the emperor a dwarf?”
Arthur was also confused by this offline answer of his and didn’t know how to answer, after a moment of silence, he picked up a bottle of perfume on the counter and inquired, “The perfume in your store, the arsenic is added too much, isn’t it?”
“Arsenic? No, no, no, we don’t add that in the perfume, that’s what’s used inside the cream.”
At the end of the sentence, the perfumer did not dare to slow down the identity of this VIP, he hurriedly invited him to the second floor of the VIP area: “I’m afraid that the goods here can’t be in your eyes, you still go to the second floor to see it, where the goods are all the top of the good.”
While Arthur walked towards the second floor, halfway there, he still didn’t forget to turn around and commanded, “Is Mr. Rui Mystery in today? I went to Jermyn Street earlier to look for him, but the people there told me that he switched to working over here. Those colognes he concocted, I kinda like them.”
“Ah! You were looking for Remy, as it turns out.” The perfumer breathed a sigh of relief as he returned with a smile on his face, “Then you can have some tea on the second floor first, he had an appointment this morning and only came to work over here in the afternoon.”
Arthur nodded slightly, turned around and went up to the second floor.
He had just popped his head up on the second floor when he heard a familiar voice in his ear.
He followed the voice and it was Disraeli who was drinking tea and chatting with someone in the tea lounge on the second floor.
The smile on the face of the recently prosperous editor-in-chief of The Cockney was almost overflowing, and sitting opposite him was a well-dressed man wearing a fuchsia Rudangot jacket that covered his calves, beige pants, and a dark black waistcoat with a simple shirt with a lapel.
Disraeli smiled and complimented: “Mr. Brummel, really did not expect to meet you here, I thought that you, the royal fashion consultant who leads the fashion of London men’s clothing usually only in Savile Row and Jermyn Street.”
Brummel put down his coffee cup, the corner of his mouth hanging some smiles, “If it is purchasing morning dresses, shoes and other things, it is definitely better to go to Savile Row and Jermyn Street, but for perfume, it is obvious that Regent Street and Bond Street are more representative.”
Disraeli inquired, “Is that so? But I’ve heard that the royal perfume of the royal family isn’t Floris at 89 Jermyn Street?”
“Perfume is something that still depends on personal preference.”
Brummel recalled, “It is true that the late King George IV preferred Floris, but our current Majesty William still prefers to use French perfumes, and he is fond of various fashion items originating from France. My private guess is that this is probably influenced by his illegitimate ex-wife, actress Dorothy Jordan, who is not recognized by the Royal Marriage Act; after all, Mrs. Jordan’s preference for French fashions is well known. In case you didn’t know, His Majesty even has to use French when making his endless and boring after-dinner speeches.”
Disraeli couldn’t help grinning when he heard this, “Is His Majesty’s speech that bad?”
Brummel bristled, “There are those who enjoy listening to him, such as His Majesty’s Royal Naval Attendants, who say that listening to His Majesty’s after-dinner speeches always makes them feel rejuvenated. His Excellency Gambier, who has just been promoted to the rank of Royal Navy Marshal, also praised, ‘After so many years, His Majesty’s speeches are still so energetic, and every time His Majesty delivers his after-dinner speeches, it brings back memories of the time when he was serving in North America with His Majesty, and that tone of voice and look is almost the same as if His Majesty is walking around on the deck and shouting at the guys to turn the helm is the the same’.”
Secret stories from royalty always interest the English, and Disraeli, naturally no exception, pursued his question with a smile, “His Majesty’s taste can’t be so bad as that, can it?”
Brummel joked, “If it is compared to his elder brother, George IV, His Majesty’s taste in fashion is certainly far inferior. But if it is compared to what the Parliament expects of him, then what His Majesty the King is presenting now is still greatly exceeded. At most, the King likes to drink wine and make a speech once in a while, but he doesn’t stir up a lot of trouble on political motions, and he is able to accept the opinions and requests of his ministers and govern the country according to the expectations of the people. As far as I know, at least the Duke of Wellington and our Prime Minister, Earl Grey, are quite pleased with His Majesty.”
Disraeli laughed out loud, “Don’t the citizens of London like him quite well, too? He is much more popular than the late King George IV. Although in his early years, he was a spendthrift and owed a lot of debts, but since he married Princess Adelaide from Saxony-Meiningen, thanks to Princess Adelaide’s hard work and thriftiness, his debts were quickly paid off, and now he even jumped up to become the king. When he was crowned before, didn’t His Majesty want to cancel the whole coronation ceremony to save the country some money? The public of Britain was cheering for him at that time.”
Brummel sniffed and pulled out a handkerchief to wipe the beads of sweat on his forehead, “Benjamin, don’t you dare mention this. His Excellencies in the House of Lords went to great lengths to convince him to accept the coronation ceremony, yet even so, the lavish banquet at the end of the coronation was canceled by his order, and the cost of the entire ceremony was directly reduced to one-tenth of what was spent on the previous king’s coronation. Because of this, those Tory hard-line conservative excellencies were directly angry and cursed, declaring that they had to boycott this country which only had half a crown. If it hadn’t been for the Duke of Wellington holding them down, those Excellencies would probably have started throwing their faces in the air at the coronation.”
Disraeli opened his mouth and asked, “So there is still this matter? But I saw that day at the coronation ceremony, His Majesty wasn’t quite happy, the late king’s coffin was placed there, and before the funeral was over, he was talking loudly to his friends. After the coronation, he boarded the parade coach with that navy-red face, and stood happily waving at the citizens of London who welcomed him. The public adored him, and felt that he was like a sailor they could see at the West India Docks.”
Hearing this, Brummel hurriedly raised his hand to signal Disraeli to stop, “Enough, Benjamin, stop talking, it’s just too much for royal decency. But you have a point, the current King’s Majesty has his own merits, he is thrifty and frugal, his hobbies don’t cost much, and at most, he just drinks and brags a bit. And since the new king was crowned, he’s been in the public eye a lot more than his predecessor. Whereas the late King preferred to live in luxury in Windsor Castle, His Majesty William prefers to be seen in the city of London and strolling along the docks, much like the recently crowned Louis-Philippe of France, who, I am told, also liked to pass his time along the Seine in Paris with a small parasol.”
Disraeli also exclaimed, “It’s not easy to say, how many years has it been since Britain had a king so popular with the public? The general public likes him, the Royal Navy likes him, the Duke of Wellington recognizes him so the Army likes him too. When you put it all together, I’m afraid the only people who don’t like him are the Excellencies who can’t see half a crown?”
Brummel took a sip of his coffee, “But unfortunately, the Excellencies who can’t see half a crown all sit in the House of Lords, and His Majesty the King has complained to me on more than one occasion about how he feels as if he’s being treated like air by a bunch of guys who think they’re educated.”
Arthur heard this and walked up on his cane, he smiled and greeted, “Benjamin.”
Disraeli saw Arthur and hurriedly got up with a smile and introduced himself, “Ah! Arthur. Come, Mr. Brummel, let me introduce you, this is Superintendent Arthur Hastings of the Greater London Police, do you know The Hastings Mysteries? That’s his work, too.”
This month’s monthly votes on a bit fierce, turn seven thousand monthly votes, then there is an additional tonight, but I guess I have to get to the middle of the night or early in the morning, you guys get up in the morning to see it.
(End of chapter)