Chapter 6 The next day, which is Easter...
The next day, which was Easter Sunday, Miss Maxwell was going to play egg rolling in the garden and asked her maid to call Miss Mary Price to join her in the guest room.
Mary took out the Easter egg she had carefully prepared. The egg was decorated with hand-painted roses. The green vines and leaves served as the background, with red, pink, and white roses interspersed among the vines, making it very exquisite.
To ensure the eggs would last, Mary began preparations more than a month in advance. She carefully selected eight clean, intact eggs without any cracks, and used a needle to poke two symmetrical holes in each egg. She then blew air into one hole to allow the yolk to flow out completely from the other. After washing and drying the eggshells, Mary sealed the holes with plaster powder, and then painted designs on the shells with paint, being careful not to break them. The eggs weren't wasted—they ate quite a few fried eggs those days—but paint wasn't cheap, so Mary only managed to make five. Three were already given away to William, Fanny, and Susan, leaving only one with a rose design and one with a lily design.
Miss Maxwell loved roses, and Mary gave her this rose-patterned Easter egg as a gift. "This is so exquisite! Oh my, Mary, my Easter egg is completely unpresentable! Oh, how light it is!" Annie was overjoyed. She carefully held the Easter egg, and even the egg-rolling game couldn't attract her attention.
“The yolk in this egg has been drained, so it can be preserved for a long time.” Mary was very happy that her gift was appreciated.
“I love you so much, Mary, it’s like a work of art.”
In the 19th century, Easter eggs had long been an art form, with countless exquisite decorative eggs available on the market. However, Miss Maxwell was still pleasantly surprised by the egg that Mary made herself. She did not expect Mary to bring out such a beautiful egg, which also featured her favorite rose.
Mary lamented that she lacked the resources. Decades later, an artist emerged who gave Easter eggs a unique brilliance, marking the pinnacle of Easter egg art. If only she had Fabergé's opportunities, she could have designed and created a magnificent jewel-like Easter egg herself.
After playing a game of rolling balls in the garden, Anne's mind turned to General Maxwell's pinball room. She had seen her father and his friends playing pinball in that room, which was reserved for him, and had been extremely curious about it, but the General's wife wouldn't let her disturb him. Now, with Mary by her side, Anne felt obligated to play something different with her friend.
She said in a mysterious tone, "Mary, come with me, I'll show you something special, something you've never seen before."
Mary followed curiously. They went upstairs to General Maxwell's study and went inside. Inside was a table similar to a modern-day pool table. "I often see Father and his friends playing pinball here. Let's try it too!" Anne said eagerly.
How should they play? The two little girls picked up their cues. Mary knew nothing about pinball at the time, and Anne had only seen her father play it and hadn't learned any of the rules (at that time, billiards was just a recreational game, and the rules weren't standardized). After discussing it for a while, they decided to play the simplest game: just hit the balls into the holes and see who could get more in.
After playing a few rounds, just as the two were getting into it, the general returned ahead of schedule. He heard the sounds coming from the billiard room and came in.
"You played well!" General Maxwell wasn't the kind of authoritarian father, and there was nothing wrong with the two little girls playing pinball.
Since her father had no objections, Miss Maxwell naturally asked the general to give them more guidance, and the three of them spent some time in the billiard room.
Although Mary Price was General Maxwell's goddaughter, he had never bothered with such trivial matters. These past two days had been the first time he had spent a considerable amount of time with his goddaughter. He was quite impressed with her. Mary was only six years old, but her performance in all aspects was no less than that of some children from upper-class families. Her speech and manners were impeccable, which greatly changed the general's opinion of the Price family. He couldn't help but ask, "Mary, how does your father usually educate you?"
“Dear Godfather, my father, Lieutenant Price, was too busy to educate his children and generally chose to respect our nature.”
Doesn't he usually give you lectures?
“Yes, not for the daughters,” Mary answered firmly.
Or rather, it wasn't education at all. Mr. Price simply didn't care about his daughters. His daughters were expected to be obedient and well-behaved, and they couldn't cause any trouble for the family. For example, some requests that Mary considered perfectly reasonable were seen as outrageous by Mr. Price, deserving of a few lashes. That was Mr. Price's idea of education, if you could call it education. The three young Miss Prices were lucky; they hadn't been disciplined like this by the lieutenant. Mary suspected that in their father's eyes, the sisters were no more useful than livestock.
The general inquired about Mary's siblings and, upon learning that William intended to join the navy, nodded in approval. Although Lieutenant Price wasn't much of a man, his children were well-educated; it seemed Mrs. Price was a very insightful woman, and the Price family still held some promise, the general thought to himself.
Anne found her father's conversation with his friend quite boring, with all that talk about "future prospects," "sailors," and "studying"—it wasn't fun at all. Seeing that their conversation had come to an end, she quickly pulled Mary along to say goodbye to her father.
After spending Easter at the general's house, Mary felt that as a guest, she should be sensible and not stay at her godmother's house for too long. So she took the initiative to ask Mrs. Maxwell, the general's wife, to return to Price House. As a hospitable hostess, Mrs. Maxwell naturally tried her best to persuade her to stay, so that her goddaughter could stay for a while longer.
However, due to the kindness of her hosts, Mary stayed for a few more days, accompanying Anne as she received Miss Smith's education, learning French, etiquette, music, painting, embroidery, and so on.
Having studied fashion design in her previous life, Mary showed great talent in both painting and embroidery. Neither young lady had any major issues with etiquette; although Miss Mary Price was unfamiliar with heraldry, it wasn't originally part of her curriculum, but Miss Maxwell needed to memorize it carefully.
As for French and music, those were Miss Maxwell's strengths, while Mary lacked both a language environment and practice opportunities, making it difficult for her to learn them well. The two ladies studied together, encouraging each other and relieving Miss Smith of much worry.
Happy times always pass too quickly. No matter how reluctant the two little girls were to part, Mary had to go home as mid-April was drawing to a close.
Mary boarded the carriage sent by the General's wife, and John, the same manservant who had picked her up before, drove her home. On the way back, Mary looked out the carriage window once more: the carriage was leaving the gentle and quiet house and was about to return to the noisy Price House. As she passed that road again, Mary remembered the idea that had flashed through her mind.
Almost all clothes nowadays can only be washed by hand, so laundry workers often have strong, muscular arms. Even so, it often takes a long time to wash a single garment. If we could invent the primitive washing machines we saw in museums in our past lives, wouldn't we save manpower? Those delicate clothes couldn't be washed in the primitive washing machines, so the laundry workers wouldn't lose their jobs. Mary slapped her forehead: "I even got scolded by Mr. Price for doing laundry back then, why didn't I think of that then?"
Three problems now lay before her: first, to recall the invention principle of the washing machine; second, to find a reliable person to manufacture the original washing machine; and third, to find a reliable person to sell it. The first was relatively easy to solve, and Mary prepared to go back and start drawing up the plans. The second and third, however, troubled her: after all, she was just a little girl, her father, Mr. Price, was not trustworthy, and her brother William was still too young. Who could she turn to? As Mary was pondering, a commotion broke her thoughts.
"What happened up ahead, John?" Mary couldn't see clearly, so she asked the valet driving the carriage, who had a better view.
"It was a farmer who announced at the market that he was selling his wife, Miss."
As the carriage drew near, Mary saw: a ragged woman, with a rope tied around her neck, was being led by a man (John, the valet, said it was her husband) to the center of Portsmouth's market, looking like a horse about to be sold. No, she was only three shillings! That price was far less than a horse! It seemed that women, as "property," were indeed less valuable than livestock!
Seeing that Miss Mary Price remained silent, John worried that she was frightened and quickly said, "Miss, don't worry. Being sold might actually be better for that woman! In these situations, the buyer and seller often know each other; perhaps it's her brother, a relative, or even..."
As John continued, his words became more evasive. If it were a real six-year-old girl, he might have let it go. But Mary wasn't. As Mary pressed him further, she learned that "selling one's wife" was a way for the poor to get a divorce, and some buyers were the wife's lovers.
The essence of marriage is the merger of property. When a woman is purchased by another man, the previous marriage is considered invalid, and the new buyer assumes financial responsibility for the wife. Under English common law at the time, marital property belonged to the husband, and the wife had no property rights whatsoever. Unmarried women, legally, could still own their own property and sign terms and contracts in their own name; married women, however, could not independently own movable property (unless it was entrusted to them by someone else). As "women under the protection of their husbands," their rights as individuals were infinitely reduced, and they became part of their husbands' property.
If Mary had read more law books, she would have discovered that more than fifty years ago, the renowned judge Sir William Blackstone openly wrote: "A woman's true or lawful existence is suspended in marriage or incorporated into the rights of her husband: she exists only under his protection and cover." This judge did not consider this discriminatory towards women; he even argued: "The wife may appear to be at a disadvantage, but this is largely for her protection and for her benefit. This is the favoritism towards women in English law."
This is terrible! This is absolutely terrible! Mary cried out in her heart: She must never, ever let herself become someone else's property!
A note from the author:
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