Chapter 27

'' And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; ;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou growest;

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. ''

The baron is explaining to me the creation of poetry. His voice was very deep and thick, so he was very charming when he reads the poetry. He turned the pages of the book and said: "This is a typical five-step iambus sonnet, mainly divided into Petrarca styles, and Shakespearean style, there is a variant and Spencer style. The main difference between them is the difference in the rhythm. Can you understand?"

"Can I understand it as a cycle of hard/soft hard/soft hard/soft?" I asked uncertainly.

"Yes, that's it, you are very smart." The baron smiled and nodded. His brown eyes were unusually bright in the sun, and I could see his reflection in it... He had been staring at me for a long time, and it seemed that he was not planning to stop this class yet. I felt that I was about to miss the time for servants' lunch at servant's hall.

"I should reward you." He whispered, "Is there anything you want?"

"I'm very grateful for being tutored by your lordship," I said.

"When I was studying, my teacher would reward me for my grades. You can think about it. Isn't there anything you want?" the baron asked.

At this moment, someone knocked on the door of the room.

I hurriedly got up from the baron's desk, cleaned my clothes, and went to open the door.

The Baron teaching me how to read is a very private matter. We always go to class when we are alone, and no third person knows about it. At first, I sat in a chair alone, and then I sat next to him. Later, we were getting closer and closer in class... If anyone saw it, he would be surprised.

The man at the door was Billy, and he walked in with a tray in which there was a letter.

"My lord, this was just sent by the postman," Billy said.

As usual, the baron took the letter casually, cut the beeswax of the letter with a paper-knife, and then began to read it.

But after looking at it twice, he suddenly frowned and then projected his gaze at me.

I thought he had something to say, so I leaned to him quickly.

But the baron said, "Owen, you can go down first."

I raised my head for unknown reasons, the Baron's face was calm, but his eyes were a bit strange as if he was looking at me with the inquiry.

I bowed and left the study, curious about the content of the letter.

For three days, the baron did not summon me to serve him, and even if I followed him early in the morning, he quickly left with Billy.

This sudden cooling attitude is very obvious, because he usually treats me so intimately, almost can't leave me at all, but now he doesn't need me at all.

Uneasiness grew in my heart, and this uneasiness reached its peak when I accidentally ran into Simon walking out of the Baron's study.

Simon saw me at the time, his face was embarrassed, and also a little weird, he didn't say anything to me, he left in a hurry. In the afternoon, the baron called me into the library.

He was sitting at the desk. There was a pipe on the desk, and the smell of cigarettes filled the air.

Since I walked into the room, his eyes have been staring at me, which made me fidgety.

"My lord, do you have any orders?" I leaned forward and asked.

"Nothing." He said calmly, "I think... Let's continue class today."

"Yes, my lord." I sat down beside him.

But when I opened the poetry I was studying, the baron put his hand on the cover of the book and shook his head.

"I won't talk about this today. Let's talk about something else." The baron stood up, walked a few steps with his hands on his back, and then slowly said: "I have a story that my father told me. He Said that in the past a businessman wanted to buy a piece of land, he asked two agents to evaluate the piece of land to see if it was worth buying.

One of them said that the land is full of dead trees, the stream is so narrow that it can be crossed by one step, and the weeds grow taller than people. You will regret it if you buy it.

Another person said that the firewood on that piece of land will be enough for you to burn for a lifetime. There is a small pond beside the stream wide enough to dig a small lake. Judging from the area of ​​weeds, this must be a fertile piece of land. In the end, the gentleman adopted the second suggestion, and the place became a delightful farm. "

The baron looked at me after telling the story: "What do you think?"

"This story tells us to see the vitality from the difficult situation." I thought about it and replied satisfactorily.

"Yes." The baron nodded: "But in my opinion, there is a deeper meaning. Everything has two sides. You must find the bottom line instead of blindly trusting and partially. Even if you see that the news is not satisfactory, you don't have to be lost and sad immediately, at least to investigate whether it is really the case."

At this point, I believe the Baron is going to talk about me.

Sure enough, the baron put a piece of paper in front of me.

"This is my uncle's recent asset development. Someone wrote me specifically to tell me, do you know? He auctioned off all the things he could sell, even some sculptures and paintings in Momon Manor that were owned by my grandfather. "The baron's voice was deep and slow: "Do you know where he spent all the money he got?"

I felt that the temperature of my body was getting colder with every word of the Baron spoke. In the end, I suppressed the panic in my heart and said, "This...how could I know."

"Think carefully before answering me." The baron interrupted me: "You have to understand that I didn't question you out of no evidence. You'd better not lie to me."

Time seemed to stop suddenly, my brain went blank, and my back was soaked with sweat.

"Viscount Bruce invested all of his money in that doomed shipping, don't you have anything to say about it?" The baron lifted my chin and forced me to look at him.

"The, Lord Viscount is too careless..." I felt a cat steal my tongue.

The baron's eyes suddenly became cold, and he said, "Really? Then why do you think he suddenly made such an imprudent decision?"

"Master Viscount, he is very short of money now, maybe he thinks this is an opportunity, so..." My lie couldn't go on, because I saw the baron's disappointed and angry eyes.

He took a deep breath and said, "Well, I can barely believe that the Viscount himself was not cautious enough, and I didn't care how he knew that I had lent the Earl 50,000 pounds because the Earl could not reveal him to anyone he Is borrowing money from me."

Then, he changed his conversation: "I inquired about your past in Momon Manor, and I asked your 'good mater', the male servant named Simon. I only asked one question, and he gave you all the details. He told me, thanks to his chatbox personality, do you know what he said?"

The baron circled me around, and then put his hand on my shoulder: "There was a special night when you asked Simon to help you work when you seduced the famous romantic widow, Mrs. Shirley. But right On that evening, my cousin Margaret was accused of having an affair with the male servant and lost her dignity. What do you want to explain about this event!"

I breathed hard and forced myself to speak: "I am sorry for my lord, I swear I will never..."

"Shut up!" The baron said loudly, "Don't treat me as a three-year-old boy! I sent someone to inquire about the scandal. The game played that night was proposed by Mrs. Shirley, and she was with you before. You still gonna say this incident doesn't have anything to do with you?"

"I haven't done anything." I gritted my lips and said.

"I thought you were just greedy for wealth, so you did something to seduce a wealthy widow. Who knows that I underestimated you." The baron said coldly, "What is hidden under your innocent and pretty appearance? What is your plan for all these, why did you frame my uncle's family!"

"I didn't, I..."

"I hate people lying in front of me the most because it's not only stupid but ugly!" the baron said loudly.

I closed my eyes helplessly. He knew, he knew everything. I thought no one would find out about these things I did in discreet, but he was the one who found out. what should I do? Can I tell him the truth?

No, I can't, if I tell him, he will think I'm crazy.

So far, the Viscount family has never done anything to hurt me. On the contrary, they hired me as a servant, gave me a livelihood, and helped my family, saying that they were my benefactors. But I framed them secretly, which sounded like a villain with unpredictable minds.

What would the baron think of me? Will everything I have done so far come to nothing?

"Don't you have anything to explain?" The baron said eagerly, "Why did you do this?"

"I... I can only tell you, I hate the Viscount Bruce family, I hate them!" I stood up, stared into the eyes of the baron, and yelled out the words in my heart clearly. These words are already buried in my heart. many years.

"Why?" the baron asked me.

Instead of answering his question, I asked him: "Why didn't you hand me over to the governor?"

"Because I want to know the reason." The baron said angrily: "I want to know that I didn't choose the wrong person."

"I can't tell you why, I am sorry, my lord."