Crown Prince Frederick's concern about William and Elizabeth dancing together stemmed from one of the most basic etiquette requirements for young men and women dancing in European court dances.

Before the age of the Internet, an important form of communication between young men and women was the ball. In fact, when the author was in college, the evening campus dance from Thursday to Sunday was actually the best way for men and women on campus to get to know each other, because there was no campus network, no chat tools, and no QQ...

Saying this seems to reveal the author's age, so let's move on to the ball.

In the nineteenth century, unmarried girls wanted to attend balls, either in the company of their parents or in the company of adult protectors. Whoever wants to invite the girl to dance, he must introduce himself to her parents or guardian, and whether or not the girl accepts the invitation must be advised by the parents or guardians.

In principle, a girl cannot dance more than two dances with a man at a one-night dance party after accepting an invitation from that man, unless the man is the girl's fiancé.

Of course, men are not allowed to dance more than two dances with girls. If he did, it would mean that the man was announcing to the whole high society that I would marry her or be engaged to her soon, and that if there was no formal proposal within a week of the ball, the high society would consider the girl's reputation to be seriously damaged, and the girl's family rightly thought that the man had insulted their family honor.

The man had to explain to the girl's parents, and there were only two consequences of the explanation: 1. The man immediately proposed to the girl and married her; 2. Duel, use blood and death to restore the honor of the girl's family.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, duels between men were still common in Germany, which was an important reason why Germany was considered uncivilized and barbaric by some in Britain and France.

A few years ago, Prime Minister Bismarck also sent an invitation to a professor for a duel because of the damage to his reputation, not to mention that the old prime minister was in his sixties, but in his life he had more than 100 duels with others. Of course, this professor is not an ordinary person, and uses the rules of the duel to play a duel between poisonous sausages and non-poisonous sausages with the old prime minister, and the two sides take turns to eat sausages until they eat the sausage that contains poison, an authentic sausage Russian roulette.

Therefore, in the social function of the court ball in the nineteenth century, the ball is not only for people from different social circles to establish and keep in touch, negotiate affairs and trade, but also an important place for nobles to choose their fiancé (wife), so the ball is often called "the bride's market"

In the interval after the Lille dance, Joey and Marie did not go to the food again, partly because of thirst, and on the other hand, continuous visits to restaurants would also be considered a sign of unculture.

So Joey and Mary stood on the edge of the pole next to the dance floor with a glass of orange-flavored soda, drinking soda and talking casually.

Mary followed Joey's gaze and found that Joey was looking at her eldest brother William with her head out, and couldn't help but ask curiously, "Joey, why are you looking at your eldest brother like this?" ”

"I'm watching Willy and Ella, and I'm wondering if they danced the Lille dance just now." Joey replied as he observed.

"Stupid Joey, your eldest brother and Elizabeth danced the Lille just now, and the penultimate pair we eliminated was them. Don't you observe the dancers next to you when you dance? Mary asked.

"I've noticed so much, Mary, you know, I'm too small to fit anyone else." Joey smiled at Mary.

"Hmph, what does it matter to me whether my eyes are big or small. Joey, if you dare to talk nonsense, I'll leave the prom immediately. Mary said, tilting her chin back.

"Ahem, I mean I don't have enough eyes." Joey noticed that clouds began to appear on Mary's face, and that the clouds had a tendency to accumulate into dark clouds.

"I mean, my dancing is bad, my eyes are bad.... Uh, I don't have good hand and foot coordination..... Well, I don't even know what I'm talking about, I think I've got a bad head......" Joey sighed and threw his head down.

Joey looked up and sneaked another look, but fortunately, Mary's weather was still in the cloudy stage.

Joey thought for a moment and said to himself, "I wish Willie would be able to dance a third dance with Cousin Ella." Mary immediately turned her head and asked with some surprise, "His Royal Highness Prince William is proposing to His Royal Highness Elizabeth?" ”

"Hehe, the empathy method of changing the topic really works, and I can at least get full marks in this psychology practice." Joey chuckled to himself.

"Joey, tell me if it's true!" Mary's gossip was on the rise.

"Mm-hmm, Willie is courting Ella right now, and I gave him an idea the other day to suggest that he must invite Ella's cousin to see him at tonight's dance, and that he should continue to invite Ella's cousin to dance at the dance until he has danced all the dance music." Joey said to Mary a little smugly.

"Joey, you are so despicable, you have no grace at all, how can you let your brother force a beautiful lady!" Mary said very upset, looking at Joey as if she were looking at a bully.

"Nope! No! No! Don't get me wrong, Mary, William didn't force Elizabeth in any way, in fact, they had always loved each other! Joey quickly explained with a green face, "Oh my God, the words don't go through the brain, and it's all troublesome to say it, and today the brain is lost." Joey thought bitterly.

"Willy just hasn't dared to confess to Ella's cousin, Ella's cousin actually likes Willy very much, my purpose in giving Willy the idea is just to let him be brave enough to confess himself to Ella, it's really not to force Ella's cousin." Joey forcefully passed what he said through his mind and explained seriously, "Mary, you see, is there anything unpleasant about Cousin Ella?!" ”

Mary looked at it carefully for a while before reluctantly accepting Joey's explanation, but still said with some dissatisfaction, "But I still don't like you to calculate a beautiful lady like this." ”

Joey IQ online, wise to shut up and not explain.

Mary opened the ivory lace fan hanging from under her left wrist and continued to teach honest Joey, "Every lady who goes to the ball will carry this with her, and if she wants to dance with that man, she will write that man's name on the fan." ”

"So we have to respect the choice of the ladies." Joey hurriedly said.

Mary gave Joey an approving look.

In between dances, the tables on the raised platforms on both sides of the ballroom are already full, and bridge is the most useful addition to a dance party, and those who don't like to dance basically like to play two hands at the table.

A relatively private card table, sitting three old men and a middle-aged man, the card table has just finished bidding, the north-south pair of the old man is the dealer, the east-west old man and a middle-aged man is the defense.

The old man on the east side of the card table glanced at the two old men in the north and south directions, and said with a smile, "Ernst, Karl, your George has gone to the meeting arranged by Lord Jazz?" ”

The old man sitting in the north bank, after looking at the bidding card, nodded to the old man who had just asked and replied, "Yes, dear Ernst, George has already gone, accompanied by several important people in the banking world. Rest assured, these are the people who support Lord Jazz's plan. ”

The old man on the east side nodded, "The banking world is crucial to Lord Sir's plan, there is no money, no start-up capital, even the greatest plan is just a piece of paper. ”

The middle-aged man sitting on the west side said with a smile, "With the support of Lord Sir Honorhorn behind his back, and the cooperation of brothers Ernst and Karl, Lord Sir's plan will definitely not be a piece of paper." ”

After hearing the words of the middle-aged man, they all nodded together to express their gratitude, and the older one said to the middle-aged man with a smile, "Dear Ernst, if this plan lacks you, it can't be called a plan, and you have contributed a lot." ”

Among the two brothers, Karl, who was a little younger, said with some emotion, "This plan has been brewing since 75 years," the honorable Mr. Engelhorn and Lord Sir were the original initiators, and the time passed was 4 years, and when everyone felt that this plan was far away, and even was stillborn, I really did not expect that God would give us those who were already hopeless new hope! The crown prince has actually become the Minister of Economy! ”

"And Lord Sir is still a good friend of the Crown Prince, and earlier before the ball, Lord Sir told me about his communication with the Crown Prince this morning." Mr. Engelhorn smiled at the other three, "Your Excellency's summary of this morning's meeting is that it was unexpectedly rewarding. And, Lord Jazz, at his urgical request, we're going to meet one at tonight's ball. ”

The other three looked at Mr. Engolhorn with some confusion and asked in unison, "Who are you going to see?" ”

"His Royal Highness Prince Waldmar is also Sir Grusen's godson."

After Ernst and the Karl brothers exchanged glances, Ernst spoke, "Last night, Professor Helmholtz had already told our brother the name of His Royal Highness the Prince, in fact, in addition to supporting Mr. Sizz's plan for tonight's ball, our brother has one more thing, which is to prepare to meet him. Then he paused and continued, "I didn't expect Lord Sir to have this request, it's really interesting. ”

Ernst, a middle-aged man, took out an invitation card from his arms, gently placed it on the card table, and said with a smile, "I received an invitation from Prince Waldemar tonight, and it seems that I have more reason to meet him." ”

"Hehehe...."The four of them burst into a chuckle.