Ada's words instantly piqued Elizabeth's interest.

As a bedridden girl, she hasn't left home 500 feet away for 10 years since she fell off a horse when she was 15.

She knows very little about the changes in the outside world.

There are only a few newspapers to learn about the outside world, and at most some school experiences mentioned by younger siblings.

For a British girl who loves literature, Byron and Shelley are undoubtedly their heroes. But judging by the information that comes out of Ada's mouth, these two heroes don't seem to be as majestic as their works.

Elizabeth had also spoken to Mrs. Shelley about her husband in the past, but for some reason, Mrs. Shelley was reluctant to talk too much about the details of her life, and the conversation between the two was more limited to literary communication.

Seeing that the topic was about to slip into some uncontrollable category, Arthur hurriedly put down his teacup and came to play the round.

"Miss Barrett, I heard before that you seem to like that article "The Flag of St. George Rises as Usual"?"

"Ah......h

Elizabeth was told the center of things by Arthur, and blushed a little for a while: "I...... It can't be said to be a liking, but more to say that it is a love, and it is really an outstanding book. When I saw Elder Carter jump into the sea to fight the shark, my heart seemed to tug, he had suffered so much injustice in the Amazon, endured a thousand hardships and the white eyes of others, but still did not succumb to the injustice brought to him by fate, but faced the God-given ordeal, raised the St. George's flag, and choked the shark's throat with his calloused and wounded hands. He resembles the legendary Greek firestealer, a Prometheus of the sea, a true Royal Navy sailor. ”

When Arthur heard this, both of his eyebrows trembled.

It was then that he realized that he and Dickens might be too artistic in some of the details of their creation.

But seeing the light in Elizabeth's vibrant eyes, he didn't want to break the matter anyway, he could only listen quietly to the lovely young lady's words.

When Elizabeth mentioned Elder, she seemed to be full of vitality, and her restrained attitude was slowly relaxed.

"If 'The Flag of St. George Goes Raised as Usual' were a completely fictional story, I probably wouldn't be so excited. But in Mr. Dickens's reply to me, he told me that there is a prototype for this story, and that the prototype character is well known to you, a friend of yours who served in the Royal Navy, and his name is Elder Carter? ”

When Arthur heard this, the sweat behind his back immediately came down.

The veteran police officer at Scotland Yard was not so nervous when faced with the vicious East End hooligans.

"Uh-huh......" Arthur pretended to mutter, trying to give himself more time to think.

But Ada, who was sitting in the armchair next to him, couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Arthur gave her a stunned look, and it was a long time before he remembered that Ida had met Elder and that it was at the Blue Sox salon that Mrs. Codidton had held.

Mrs. Shelley frowned and asked, "Ada, what are you laughing at?" ”

Ida tugged away from her dress and sat down in her chair in a dignified manner: "It's nothing, I just think Mr. Hastings is funny about the way he thinks." ”

Arthur hurriedly gave her a look and motioned for her not to talk nonsense.

But Ida ignored this, neither nodding nor shaking her head, but took her teacup and looked at the decorative arts in the living room.

Elizabeth was oblivious to what was happening around her, and her attention was now focused on the enigmatic man, Mr. Elder Carter.

"Mr. Carter, what kind of man is he?"

"Mr. Carter......"

Arthur pondered for a long time, and then cautiously gave his own evaluation: "Actually, Mr. Carter and I are old friends, and we have been classmates since college. After graduating, they chose different careers, but they often got together together. On the whole, Mr. Carter was a pure man, a man of fraternity, a man of different interests than mortals, a man who would sacrifice his life in pursuit of great ideals. If I were to describe the hero of the poem, I would prefer him to be a Byronic hero, and coincidentally, his idol was also Byron. ”

Arthur's words were extremely tactful, but he basically mentioned all the points he could mention.

Not only Ida understood these words, but even Mrs. Shelley understood them.

As Byron's daughter, Ida can interpret that most of the Byron-like heroes in Arthur's mouth refer to the protagonist of his father's posthumous work "Don Juan".

Although Byron portrays Don Juan as an innocent victim who unconsciously falls in love again and again, he is always suppressed by the rotten Catholic concept.

But this does not prevent Don Juan from actually being a charismatic but brazen Spanish aristocrat in the local Spanish folk tales. Legend has it that when he saw a woman, he lured her into bed and had sex with a different woman every night.

As for why Byron portrayed Don Juan as an innocent victim, it is mostly due to the fact that he substituted his own experiences and fantasies.

In Byron's version of "Don Juan", the protagonist is seduced by a married woman at the age of 16 because he can't resist the temptation. In order to cover up the scandal, his parents sent him on a boat trip.

When the ship was caught in a storm at sea, he drifted alone on a beautiful Greek island, where he fell in love with the pirate chieftain's daughter, who was furious and sold him to the Ottoman Turkish slave market.

Because of his handsome appearance and elegant conversation, he was soon sold as a maid by slave traders to the harem of the Ottoman Sultan. The unfolding of this wolf into the flock naturally led to a series of romantic affairs.

When the Russo-Turkish War broke out, Don Juan took advantage of the chaos to escape from the court, joined the Russian army, and was praised by Russian Marshal Suvorov for his bravery in battle, and thus met the Russian Empress Catherine II. Not surprisingly, Don Juan later won the favor of the Empress and was appointed Russian ambassador to Britain.

As for the later plot, due to Byron's unexpected death, it did not continue.

Whenever Elder talks to Arthur about "Don Juan", he can't help but sigh, because according to Lord Byron's understanding of the British erosive social circle, Don Juan's arrival in England was only when the story was exciting, but he was unexpectedly a eunuch, which has to be said to be a great loss to the world literary world.

And when Arthur first saw this book, he was also quite shocked. Mr. Hastings thought that with this copy of Don Juan alone, Lord Byron would not starve to death even if he went into the 21st century. Not to mention more, how can he become Taishan Beidou in the field of stallions.

Although onlookers privately gave "Don Juan" a very high evaluation, as Byron's wife, Mrs. Millbank's most hated book was "Don Juan".

Because the beginning of the book is basically based on Byron's affair with his sister. Aside from Byron's beautification of this plot, it is basically the cause and effect of this guy leaving England for Greece under the pressure of public opinion.

Both Ada and Lady Shelley understood Arthur's subtext, but that didn't mean Elizabeth did.

Her cheeks flushed, and the word Byronic hero not only did not discourage her interest in Elder, but only intensified her curiosity.

"That is, Mr. Elder Carter is indeed a living person? I remember that in "The Flag of St. George Rises as Usual", it was said that he was very fond of literature, and although his poems were not recognized by the world, he still adhered to the path he believed in. In this case, is he also the author of "The British"? ”

"Hmmm......"

Arthur felt that it was difficult to ride a tiger, and if it had not been for the fact that it was too rude to do so for a paralyzed lady, perhaps he would have taken his leave.

Arthur weighed his words and said, "Sure enough, I can't hide anything from you." Mr. Carter is indeed our author, you like religion and you like history, and you're a big reader of our British, so I'm guessing you've seen that Robin Hood, right? That's Mr. Carter's work. ”

"Oh my God!" Elizabeth covered her mouth and opened her eyes wide: "It turned out ...... Was that Carter Mr. Elder Carter? I thought he was still in the midst of a struggle, but his years of hard work paid off, and I remember that even Sir Scott praised his work. I...... I'm so happy for him. ”

"You are such a kind person. Well...... Mr. Carter would be happy to know that there are supporters like you. I'm not kidding, the Beagle with a maximum speed of 13 knots, he can drive 1,300 knots because of you. ”

The Red Devil put his arm on Arthur's shoulder and smiled, "1300 knots? Arthur, are you planning to get him off Earth? ”

Although Arthur's face did not change, the observant Ida noticed that the shirt on the chest of the unfazed Scottish Yard police officer seemed to be wet.

"The Beagle?"

Elizabeth was curious: "I remember this is the name of Mr. Darwin's research ship, could it be that he was staying with Mr. Darwin at this time, engaged in that great round-the-world expedition?" ”

Elizabeth had just finished asking, and before Arthur could take a stubble, she exclaimed as if she had come to her senses, "Oh...... I almost forgot! "The Flag of St. George Rises as Usual" takes place in South America, is this the real experience on the Beagle? Oh, my God! It seemed that the voyage was more dangerous than I had imagined, and I prayed to God that both Mr. Carter and Mr. Darwin would return safely. ”

Seeing this, Ada, who had been silent, suddenly accosted: "Maybe Mr. Hastings should introduce Mr. Carter to everyone." I was also very interested in this gentleman, with his strong and indomitable will, the charm of a Byronic hero, and the magnificent life experience, he will definitely have a lot of stories to tell us. ”

Hearing this, Elizabeth couldn't help but look down at her thin legs, then raised her head again and smiled: "Forget it, that will be too troublesome for him." While I do want to get to know him, isn't Mr. Carter on a circumnavigation of the globe? ”

Ida stood up and sat beside Elizabeth, shook her hand and said, "Miss Barrett, have you forgotten?" You can write to him. It's a little farther away from the Atlantic, but life on board must be boring, and maybe Mr. Carter is looking forward to having someone to talk to him. ”

"This ......"

Elizabeth's eyes lit up, but she became hesitant again: "But ...... Wouldn't that seem too self-conscious? Why should he bother with someone he didn't even know? My life wasn't that exciting, and I didn't have anything interesting to share with him. Will he like my immature little poems? ”

Mrs. Shelley looked at Elizabeth's lowered head and stepped forward to comfort her, "Although I don't think it's a brilliant idea, it's always okay to make more friends. Byron-like heroes, for all their shortcomings, are usually quite philanthropic as Mr. Hastings puts it, and are not very good at bullying a beautiful mind. ”

Write a letter to Held?

Or let the woman write to him?

When Arthur heard this, he suddenly couldn't sit still.

He was about to say a few words of persuasion, but as soon as his ass left his seat, he realized that it didn't seem particularly bad.

Just as Mrs. Shelley was worried about Elizabeth's mental state, Arthur, as Elder was Id's most reliable friend, he was also worried about Elder Spirit.

Because this young nobleman from an authentic Anglican family has even been forced to convert to Buddhism and go to the Tang Dynasty to learn scriptures.

Although Arthur did not intend to interfere with his personal religious beliefs, it was not a good idea for Elder, who was interested in going further in Britain, to become a monk.

Not to mention, Britain doesn't even have a single Buddhist temple.

Moreover, according to the law, the scope of government distribution of sacchariacs to clergy is limited to the priests of the state church, which does not include abbots and abbots.

Two lonely hearts, hugging each other to warm each other, as long as the two never see each other, there should be no problems. And Elder is a man who is at least amusing, although for the most part, he doesn't do it intentionally.

Moreover, even in the worst-case scenario, Held's letterhead was coarsely worded, at least Arthur could have intercepted it and reviewed it first, and worked with Dickens to polish Mr. Carter's masterpiece to a certain extent, modeled after "The Flag of St. George Rises as Usual".

If he and Dickens can't be added together, then add another Parisian love saint Alexandre Dumas. This fat man is not only quite accomplished in drama and aspects, but also has a lot of experience in how to write letters to ladies.

Moreover, didn't the editorial office have a female emotional analyst Mr. Stendhal recently?

Although Stendhal could not afford the well-informed actresses, if he wanted to make a lady who had been bedridden for many years happy, his small notebook could probably come in handy.

Thinking of this, Arthur couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, and he got up with a smile and said to Elizabeth, "Miss Barrett, I've been worrying about my friend's mental state lately. Although he was an indomitable warrior, his long-term sailing life was still gradually dragging down his heart. I'm really scared that he's going to look for a short meeting one day.

If you're willing to help me, why don't you just agree to correspond to him? While this doesn't necessarily work, we can try it first. In exchange, you can ask him to tell you stories about his time in South America in the letter, and I can send you some of the specimens he sent back from afar. ”

"This ......," Elizabeth stared at her feet, a little unsure, "can someone like me really help others?" ”

"People like you?" Arthur smiled and said, "If you're talking about your feet, I'm sure you'll get better." When that time comes, you might be able to see other parts of the world for yourself, as Mr. Carter did. ”

"Are you sure?" Elizabeth was skeptical, and although she thought that Arthur was mostly comforting her, the years of illness still made her have some illusions.

Arthur nodded seriously and said, "Maybe it's today, maybe it's tomorrow, maybe it's a few years, but I'm pretty sure that you'll finally stand up." As long as you can draw that lion's heart from his letters, as Mr. Carter did. ”

(End of chapter)