The Shadow of Great Britain

171: Chapter 123: Starting 1-0 171: Chapter 123: Starting 1-0 Greenwich District, on the streets near Sundial Square.

Arthur, dressed in a neat police uniform, sat in a rickety carriage.

In his hand, he clutched a “London Social Guide” he had exchanged from an old bookstore, earnestly reading every word and sentence.

Although he had been in London for five years, he had never attended any formal banquets or balls.

The reason for this was quite simple.

Firstly, it was a matter of personality; rather than frequenting social gatherings and breathing the foul air, he preferred to stay alone in his cottage, reading books for entertainment.

Secondly, his social standing had been far too low.

Until six months ago, he was just an ordinary patrol officer at Scotland Yard and such a minor role certainly did not catch the attention of high society.

Only someone like Eld, who was willing to mingle with him, appeared on the campus of the University of London.

So, since Arthur’s graduation, with Eld training diligently in the Royal Navy, his social activities were basically just gatherings with a few friends like Tom and Tony, and he was even reluctant to order too much in restaurants when they did get a drink.

After all, both Tom and Tony, one who had already started a family, and the other strived for the marriage condition set by Scotland Yard’s internal regulations, “Proving oneself to have at least twenty British Pounds in savings.”

Of course, even though Arthur had now been promoted to Inspector and his personal wealth had grown by leaps and bounds, before he accepted General Cordington’s invitation, he had never thought of venturing into the realm of socializing.

This was because the various social rules of 19th-century British society were incredibly intricate, and for someone like Arthur who was not native-born and not exactly of a proper British middle-class background, understanding all these things was not something that could be done overnight.

Take the “London Social Guide” Arthur held in his hands – even though he had been trying hard to memorize it since early this morning when he started work, he still hadn’t quite figured it out.

And after finishing the book, what Arthur felt most grateful for was that he had no females in his household, and he himself was a bachelor.

In the realm of socializing, these upper-class misses or ladies from middle-class merchant families paid even more attention than gentlemen, and interactions between men and women brought forth a long list of taboos.

Their dresses alone had a variety of written and unwritten rules: dresses were categorized by ball gowns, dinner gowns, walking dresses, riding attires, and they even had special country clothes for returning to the countryside or attending gatherings; on grand occasions, they had to wear the most ornate evening gowns.

Of course, although these garments sound diverse, the misses and lady of these years would typically wear black dresses, as there would almost always be a period each year when they had to dress in black to mourn deceased husbands, parents, siblings, or in-laws.

When Arthur read the next section on the regulations of male-female interactions, he felt as if his brain, already stuffed with various complicated rules, was being pressed down by another layer of heavy marble.

When riding in a carriage, a gentleman would never sit next to a non-relative lady, and had to sit on the side facing away from the direction of the horses, leaving the opposite seat for the ladies.

He had to be careful not to step on the ladies’ dresses, and when dismounting, the gentleman should alight first and be prepared to assist these ladies who were hindered by their wide hoop skirts.

Arthur didn’t particularly mind this point because he hardly had the chance to encounter such situations.

The ones who shared a carriage with him were never ladies but ordinary gentlemen of no particular note.

For example, there was Mr.

Eld Carter, the high-achieving student of Classical Literature at the University of London, a master of the Royal Navy sailor lingo, the greatest missed opportunity of British literature in the 19th century, the “Thames of the land.”

Or the curled fat man who had written books all his life, yet was not as valued as his six-year-old son, who claimed to love peace but would open his armory and discharge 3,500 tons of ammunition to bomb the Tuileries Palace in Paris – the “French terrorist” Alexander Dumas.

There was also Charles Darwin, who studied theology at Cambridge University for years, had little interest in the “Bible,” instead took to Lamarckism, and believed the clergy’s theory of creation was nonsense.

At most, add Charles Dickens, a journalist who might one day be hailed as “living Shakespeare” but could never catch the eye of Britain’s premier literature critic, Mr.

Eld Carter.

Indeed, mingling with such individuals did not require the careful attention to social etiquette as one would in high society, unless they suddenly took it into their heads to don dresses.

Just when Arthur thought he could avoid this ordeal, his eyes fell upon the line below.

—— A proper young unmarried lady should not go out unaccompanied, and a demure lady should not look around searching for acquaintances or stop to chat in crowded streets.

—— If a young lady does see a gentleman friend on the street and feels she cannot ignore him, she should reach out first.