Chapter 151: The Little Girl and Her Monsieur Moustache
The sun shone brightly, with clear blue skies and white clouds, creating weather so beautiful it lifted one's spirits.
On the outskirts of Paris, the King's Highway — the same one the Princess of Two Sicilies had traveled — once again welcomed a distinguished guest.
This time, the roadside decorations were largely unchanged, but the guarding troops were entirely new faces, and their numbers were significantly greater than before.
Due to the "bandit attack on the Crown Prince" incident half a month prior, Queen Marie had even deployed the King's Swiss Guard to escort her arriving niece.
For a time, the white uniforms of the Paris Legion and the red uniforms of the Swiss Guard stood in alternating lines along both sides of the road, their red and white array forming a striking new spectacle.
Inside the carriage, Clémentine fluttered her large eyes, which bore some resemblance to Joseph's. Her gaze swept over the dense rows of guards, and she proudly held her head high, saying in Italian to the Tuscan ambassador with a laugh: "Count Fanano, you see? His Royal Highness the Crown Prince brought almost the entire army of Paris to greet me! He must have heard about my cuteness from so many people, haha."
The square-faced middle-aged man shook his head slightly, a wry expression on his face. 'You haven't forgotten the attack on the French Crown Prince a while ago, have you?' he thought. 'The increased security is probably not primarily for you...'
Suddenly, a piercing bugle call sounded from ahead.
The Grand Duchess of Tuscany quickly dropped her cheeky grin, fumbled to straighten her attire, and placed her feathered hat on her head. Then, she began to softly recite the words she would speak shortly.
However, as she reached the second step, her foot suddenly slipped, and she lost her balance, letting out a yelp as she tumbled forward.
Fortunately, a quick-witted bodyguard leaped forward and caught her, narrowly averting the awkward spectacle of falling flat on her face. Her beautiful feathered hat, however, flew more than ten steps away.
Clémentine's face flushed faintly. She looked up to see the handsome Crown Prince watching her, quickly broke free from the bodyguard's hand, picked up her skirt, and walked forward. She curtsied, saying in somewhat broken French: "It is an honor to meet Your Royal Highness!
"Um, cough, I saw everyone looking so serious just now, so I pretended to slip to make everyone laugh, hee hee..."
Joseph watched the little girl, barely ten years old, babble to herself in a strange accent, feeling a mix of amusement and exasperation. He quickly returned her bow with a hand over his chest and said: "I am delighted to meet you too. You are truly entertaining, haha."
"Oh, by the way, to thank you for coming all this way to meet me, I have a very special 'leav'— something to give you." The little girl said, taking a small wooden box from behind her.
"'Leav-thing?' Joseph asked, puzzled. 'Do you mean "gift"?'
"Oh, yes, yes, gift!" Clémentine scratched her head and chuckled. "My French isn't very fluent, so please don't mind. Here, this is for you."
"Thank you so much," Joseph said, taking the wooden box and opening it. Inside, he saw a somewhat yellowed paper folding fan. "This is... a folding fan? For me?"
The little girl wore a profound expression, waving her hand. "No, dear cousin, this is an antique! I heard you have a great 'fas-tination' with Eastern culture, so I bought this especially for you. Oh, and it's supposedly used by a very famous scholar from the Far East named Confucius!"
"Confucius? A folding fan?!" Joseph pressed a hand to his forehead in exasperation. A paper folding fan from the Spring and Autumn period... that was like a Ming dynasty blue-and-white porcelain plate with 'microwave safe' printed on it, or if the four sheep on the Bronze Four-Ram Square Zun were cartoon characters...
Although he knew it was a bit impolite, Joseph couldn't help but ask: "If you don't mind my asking, how much did this antique cost you?"
"Not expensive at all, 120 ducats," the little girl said, beaming. "As long as you like it, that's what matters."
120 gold ducats was nearly 800 livres. Heavens! Spending so much on a forgery... Joseph wrestled with whether to tell her, but thinking that the young girl's intentions were pure, he decided it was best not to embarrass her.
He put away Clémentine's gift and exchanged a few more pleasantries with her. Just as he was about to invite her into the carriage to return to Versailles, he saw her skipping lively towards Clauzel, her smile bright and open: "This is a 'leav-thing' for you, I hope you like it."
Afterward, she gave a gift to Eman, then to the accompanying Grand Steward of the Inner Court, and then to the officers of the Paris Legion...
Joseph pressed his hand to his forehead again. 'This little girl is a bit too outgoing, isn't she?'
Clémentine was happily distributing gifts when a cloud suddenly obscured the sun, and the clear sky instantly began to drizzle.
Joseph quickly seized the opportunity to usher his gregarious cousin into the carriage. The welcoming procession then set off again.
However, before they even reached central Paris, Clémentine's carriage axle suddenly broke. Joseph, seeing the raindrops dancing on the ground, quickly had Eman invite his cousin into his own carriage.
The little girl dabbed the rainwater from her arms and face with a handkerchief, chirping: "The carriage just broke down! But it's fine, I often run into such bad luck, haha. One must always stay optimistic."
As she spoke, she magically produced a handful of candies from her person and arranged them on the small wooden table in front of them. She tilted her head towards Joseph: "Cousin, I invite you to have some candy. This vanilla mint candy is a specialty of my 'sweet-maker,' you can't find it anywhere else!"
...
Fortunately, the rest of the journey went smoothly, and the rain gradually stopped as the procession arrived at Versailles.
Queen Marie, with a warm and affectionate smile, awaited them alongside Louis XVI on the Marble Courtyard outside the main entrance.
The little girl disembarked, skipped forward to bow to the King and Queen, then flung herself into her aunt's embrace, secretly slipping a handful of vanilla mint candies into her hand: "Monsieur Raynal made these himself."
"Oh, thank you so much, my sweetheart! This truly is a taste of home."
As Clémentine continued her greetings, she arrived before Princess Thérèse, and upon seeing the blue-gray Chartreux cat in her arms, she immediately became excited: "Wow! It's so beautiful and cute! Can I pet it?
"Wow, it's so well-behaved. Oh, right, I have a cat too! I love it very, very much, and its name is Monsieur Moustache.
"Oh, you must want to see Monsieur Moustache too! I'll go get him, hee hee!"
Thérèse watched, utterly bewildered, as the little girl turned and ran towards the servants' carriage, only to return holding a long-haired black and white cat.
"Look, isn't he cute too?"
Joseph, observing Clémentine's cat from nearby, almost burst out laughing—the cat's head was mostly pure white, save for a small tuft of black fur right under its nose, making it look remarkably like a certain failed art student.
'No wonder it's called Monsieur Moustache.'
What no one noticed was that Monsieur Moustache's eyes were fixed intently on the Chartreux cat in Thérèse's arms. It suddenly extended a paw, swiping at the air, and let out continuous, fawning meows. Thérèse's cat, in turn, responded with flirtatious eyes like silk, writhing its body.
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