Chapter 49 General Maxwell at this moment…
General Maxwell then realized his daughter's true feelings: she disliked neither Mr. McDonald, who was pursuing her passionately, nor the calm and composed Colonel Brandon, but preferred the young and energetic Lieutenant Price.
The general neither commented nor denied this; he could neither encourage his daughter to pursue her own love nor force her to distance herself from William Price.
Faced with this situation, Mary naturally had to ask William privately what he thought of Anne, whether he truly liked Anne, or if it was just because Anne liked him, and she was a wealthy heiress who wanted to use this opportunity to climb the social ladder and couldn't refuse.
“Mary, I don’t want to hide it from you, but I’ve always regarded Anne as the daughter of my benefactor. It wasn’t until yesterday’s ball, when she danced two dances with Mr. MacDonald and everyone was saying that he started pursuing Anne in Brighton this summer and might propose soon, that I realized my love for her…”
William sighed in frustration, “But what right do I have to stop him from being with Anne? I’m just a naval lieutenant now, I have no right to let Anne live the same wealthy life she has now.”
William was always apprehensive about Anne's deep affection, but he genuinely believed that he could not marry the general's daughter without his consent.
Now that his vacation is over, he will return to the sea to pursue his future. He leaves the choice entirely to Anne, and even if Anne chooses someone else one day, he will sincerely wish her happiness and always cherish her in his heart.
To the siblings' relief, Mary did not discover any dissatisfaction with her godfather until William left London for Portsmouth. He continued to be tolerant of the young man and to care for and love his goddaughter as always.
Now Anne and Mary's relationship is even better. Because of the girl's shyness and caution, she did not speak openly to her lover's sister, but whenever she thought of William, or whenever there was any news about him, she would always share it with Mary. Every time she talked about William, the way she looked so excited made Mary feel that her brother and friend's relationship was quite promising.
Meanwhile, Mary's other friend, Charlotte, was also seeing her small business in Manchester begin to thrive. Thanks to the letter Mary sent her from Richard, she had bought a sewing machine at a lower price than the market rate, saving her a considerable amount of money.
Mr. Brown had always been unhappy with women doing business, but he wasn't the kind of person to be heartless towards his daughter. Now that he learned that his daughter had saved two or three hundred pounds and planned to start her own business, he couldn't do anything about it even if he didn't want to support her.
Charlotte, having not spent her father's money, naturally felt even more confident. She bought six sewing machines, hired six women workers, and rented a room near their small house in Manchester to set up a small workshop producing corsets. Now, more than half a year later, Charlotte's corsets were warmly welcomed by Manchester's shop assistants and textile workers.
These poor women, who have to work long hours every day, don't care if their corsets fit perfectly; in fact, they need them to be a little loose. They also don't care that these simple corsets lack patterns and embroidery; they're already content to buy a new one at a cheap price. The secondhand ones they bought in the past were not only ill-fitting but also not very clean!
Mary was overjoyed when Charlotte wrote to her that almost every shop assistant and textile worker in Manchester had begun using the corsets she produced. Charlotte also told her in the letter that these women were very willing to cooperate with the shop assistants in taking their measurements, and that the women's size chart Mary wanted would soon be available.
Now Mary has almost nothing to worry about. When she received a message from Richard that there might be a breakthrough in the production technology of sewing machine parts, she decided to go to the factory in the suburbs to take a look.
That day, everything seemed normal when the brother and sister set off together in the carriage. But as they turned a few streets, leaving the bustling area and heading into the suburbs, Richard noticed two men on horseback following them.
Perhaps thinking that the two delicate and wealthy young men and women would not be able to find them, their methods of following were so clumsy that they practically swaggered all the way over.
“Mary, be careful, I’m a little worried. Those two men look like thugs, they might start fighting soon. You should hide first,” Richard whispered.
After Richard reminded her, Mary also spotted the two men. She gasped when she saw the scarred face of one of them. Although they were dressed like ordinary travelers, their furtive demeanor gave them away.
Richard was right; these two were definitely not good people. In that case, where could she possibly hide?
Mary glanced at the tools in her hand, told the coachman to continue driving, took out a bag of sewing machine metal parts from the carriage, said a few words to Richard, and when the carriage reached a fork in the road, Richard threw the parts from the bag forcefully behind.
Even though the two men managed to pull on the reins in time, their horses were still inevitably startled. They tried to dismount as smoothly as possible, but Richard suddenly turned back and poked them with his cane, causing the two men to fall and get bruised and battered.
When the stalker realized that Richard had discovered something amiss, he immediately tried to stand up and slip away, but was tied up by the coachman who was already prepared nearby.
"Why are you two following me?" Richard asked, thinking to himself that these two were either sent by a businessman who wanted to find out the secrets of the sewing machine, or they were bandits who wanted to rob him.
The two stammered and refused to tell the truth, so Richard beat them with his cane before finally getting them to admit that they had been hired by a middle-aged man to follow him every day, telling him where he went and who he met. Hearing that there was a mastermind behind it all, the brother and sister became even more uneasy.
Mary thought to herself, "Judging from their tone, these two don't seem to be after the sewing machine. If they wanted to know the secrets of the production, they should have hired someone to steal the blueprints from the factory or Richard's residence. Could it be that they want to figure out Richard's social connections before taking action against him?"
“Besides having you follow him, tell me everything about that person: what are his characteristics, what did he say? After all, you're only after money, so there's no need for you to keep his secrets,” Mary said, feigning pity. “If you tell the truth, I can persuade my brother not to hand you over to the sheriff.”
The two men looked at each other for a while, and then, seemingly deciding that a lady wouldn't need to lie to them, one of the thugs muttered, "He was disguised; we didn't see his face. We only heard him say something like, 'We didn't expect him to get rid of the stuff so quickly; otherwise, a mere sailor wouldn't have gone to such lengths.'"
The words "things" and "get rid of" alerted Richard, making him realize that the mastermind behind it all wasn't after the sewing machine, but after the sapphire mine!
Richard had assumed this information would remain a secret forever. If it weren't for the gem he possessed, he would have almost forgotten about it, let alone sold it to any important figure. After all, he no longer needed this information to make money. Who knew someone would actually find out about him?
Keep in mind that the Kingdom of Punjab and the Afghan dynasty were still at war, so Richard kept hoping that even if someone found out, they wouldn't think that a lowly crew member would know anything.
Richard eventually handed the two thugs over to the local sheriff. When Mary couldn't see, Richard secretly slipped the sheriff a sum of money to ensure they would be punished. Mary, not exactly a lady, was fully aware of the deal between her brother and the sheriff; she knew the two thugs would certainly not have a good end.
She didn't abuse her compassion to plead for them; rather than sympathize with such people, she would have preferred to improve the treatment of the artisans and workers in the sewing machine factory.
Despite being distracted by this, the brother and sister still went to the factory, where they saw the newly customized lathe.
With the new lathe, almost all parts of the sewing machine can be produced semi-mechanically. As a result, the production cost of an ordinary sewing machine can be reduced from twelve pounds to ten pounds. This good news made both of them much happier.
“Richard, now that the costs have gone down, let’s raise the wages of these workers. Anyway, we’re not going to lower the price of the sewing machines for the time being, so the final profit will be higher,” Mary suggested.
“Oh, Mary, you’re always so kind. You’ve been like this ever since you were in the hat business,” Richard complained. “But our factory already treats its workers the best in all of London and even in all of England. You only need to work ten hours a day to get such a high wage. If we raise wages any further, other factory owners will protest.”
“The workers are only paid twenty-five shillings a week now, what’s the harm in raising them a little more? Anyway, there’s only one sewing machine factory in all of England, what does it matter to them if we raise their wages? Besides, doesn’t this prevent leaks? As for working hours, our workers are much more efficient per hour than those factories that make them work twelve or even fifteen hours a day,” Mary tried her best to persuade her brother.
Driven by a capitalist's instinct, Richard felt he shouldn't give up his profits. However, having been raised as a gentleman, and after his sister repeatedly described the workers' poverty to him, and after mentioning how to keep secrets if the danger they faced today came from other businessmen trying to steal their secrets, Richard finally agreed to raise the price by five shillings per week. The workers were overjoyed upon receiving the news.
When they decided to return to the city, Richard and Mary finally realized they were going to be rich. They chose an honest and reliable worker from the factory and a coachman to sit with them and escort them back to the city. Richard also made up his mind to sell the news about the gem mine to General Maxwell after returning to the city.
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