Note/L10N/KDQ/2.03/Books/povsshoydenshusband2?
povsshoydenshusband2 
原文
<font face=1><DIV align="center">The Hoyden's Husband<br>
<p>
Part 2 - Rogier de Guerles
<p>
By Cartland the Barbarian
<p>
<DIV align="left"> <IMG src="Book/fancy_font/p_59x62.dds" width=51 height=61>eople were admiring her, no question of that, but how was she going to progress to the next phase? Walking up to strange men and asking about their wives and children did not sound particularly ladylike. She though of trying tavern gossip but one step inside the nearest drinking hole made it clear that, dressed as she was, the risks outweighed the potential advantages.
<p>
Marienne was a dab hand with a dagger. She found a certain satisfaction in practising the skill in defiance of her mother's criticism that it was not what a girl should be doing. Her mother never left the castle and had been given an equally sequestered and cosseted upbringing. Contact with 'reality' had been too infrequent to be meaningful. Marienne even in this brief encounter saw how skill with the dagger could prove a life-saver.
<p>
She glanced casually at the ruffians and ne'er-do-wells in the run down drinking establishment, as if she had come to find someone particular. Then she turned and swept out. A barrage of wolf-whistles followed.
<p>
The city of Fleetness was the largest in the region and boasted a wide variety of commercial operations. Marienne checked carefully to find the most exclusive of the clothiers then went inside ostensibly to buy a new robe. The clothes she was wearing, deep purple velvet with a design of red and blue satin, smacked of money. The proprietor, an elderly woman with thick spectacles, came hurrying across. Marienne waved her away imperiously pointing instead to the much younger assistant. The kind of questions to which she needed answers were unlikely to be appreciated by the elderly. When the girl came scurrying up Marienne announced that she wanted to try on everything in the shop.
<p>
The shop girl and proprietor exchanged a glance. Both were too experienced to baulk at the vagaries and general oddness of the rich.
<p>
As the laborious task proceeded Marienne slowly brought the conversation around to a discussion on local men. The shop girl herself was of common stock and clearly did not move in the circles in which Marienne assumed she would need to look for a husband. But such people found gossiping about their social superiors endlessly enjoyable, or so her mother had implied. With this girl at least her mother's observation proved to be accurate.
<p>
And so Marienne first heard about Rogier de Guerles. He was in his early thirties. This was the best age for men, according to the shop girl. Much younger and inexperience made them too gauche and clumsy; much older and saturation jaded their appetites. Somewhere between twenty-eight and thirty-four was the age range that gave the most satisfaction.
<p>
So, why wasn't this wonderful benefit to female kind already married and settled?
<p>
The shop girl was indignant. Once married a man was supposed to be faithful. Rogier married would, at least in theory, deprive a good few members of the younger womanhood of Fleetness from the enjoyment of his favours. In the shop girl's opinion it would also make him boring. Marriage, she observed sagely to Marienne, was the biggest turn off to the enjoyment of sex imaginable. Without the challenge and excitement of the chase, a man was likely to go to seed, get fat and lazy or, worst of all, take up hobbies! This was the second biggest turn off to the enjoyment of sex. A good man should only marry when he reached thirty five and began the inevitable and rapid decline into an uninteresting lump.
<p>
It was not entirely clear to Marienne whether or not the shop girl had enjoyed Rogier's favours herself. As there was no prudery in her conversation, the absence of detailed description, made Marienne guess that she probably had not. Maintaining a na?e and open demeanour, she wondered whether the freedom so beloved by the couturier's assistant might not lead to unwanted pregnancy.
<p>
But no, it seemed. Rogier was stunningly handsome, accomplished as a fighter, musician, dancer, sportsman and arbiter of good taste. He was also highly intelligent. Clearly so if with all these desirable attributes he had managed to stay single. Women were apparently falling over to have his children.
<p>
From Marienne's viewpoint this sounded a sour note and put a heavy dent in her assessment of Rogier's intelligence. 79 children had to be a burden that even the wealthiest of estates would find hard to bear.
<p>
Not at all, she heard. Rogier was far too fly to be caught like that. To experience the exquisite delights of his body a woman had first to sign an undertaking that any - results - of their congress could not in any circumstances be brought home on him. The dent in his credibility was removed. This young man was not only shrewd but calculating, too. With a bit of luck he would regard all women as 'his' by right. How would he respond to one who said ?no??
<p>
Marienne selected a purchase at random. As much as anything she felt she owed the girl a favour for all the information she had imparted. As she waited for the robe to be wrapped, she enquired where Rogier de Guerles might be found.
<p>
Where else but in the palace of the local ruler? She might well have guessed it. The man was falling more and more assuredly into a pattern; one of the male 'categories' of which her mother had warned her. Her mother classified men by type and category. There were but two types - useless and worse than useless. The five categories were; arrogant youth, vainglorious wastrel, grasping parvenu, pompous buffoon and senile dodderer. Rogier de Guerles fell into the second of these.
<p>
Satisfied with the day's findings Marienne returned to her lodgings and spent another long and gruelling session plucking, tweezing, smoothing, combing, painting and generally beautifying. It was a process that lasted six hours, though interrupted half way through by the need for sleep. When she set out for the palace the next day, she was even more glamorous than before.
<p>
One of the things she had brought with her from the castle was a family signet ring. Her family was well known throughout the kingdom but when walking into strange environments saying who you were meant nothing. She would need evidence.
<p>
In all this time she never once worried about her mother. It was very possible that Marienne's absence was as yet unremarked. Her mother's sulks could be lengthy affairs. But even if they knew she had gone what could they do? Her mother was not one to scour the country. Fleetness was the nearest city but it was not the capital nor was it the largest. Marienne had not mentioned the letter from her father so it was highly unlikely her mother would turn up looking for her. Indeed it was highly unlikely her mother was worried. Worrying was something else a lady apparently did not do!
<p>
Feeling confident and determined Marienne marched up the palace steps, sweeping past the guards and stalked into the grand entrance hall. There were a number of beautiful people lounging around. Some were drinking tea, others talking. A few simply sat and stared into space.
<p>
She guessed the identity of Rogier de Guerles at once. He was, Marienne could tell, a model of manly perfection from a physical point of view. He had black hair with a slight reddish sheen cut to frame an oval face of classical good looks. His features were flawless, open and welcoming. He was tall and slim, without being skinny and did everything with an easy grace. Strangely she did not find him attractive. But she knew enough of procreation from her mother to understand that matrimony owed little to desire and much to economics.
<p>
One thing the shop girl had not mentioned - perhaps she did not know it - was that Rogier had another excellent trait for a potential husband. He was almost tongue-tied in her presence. That he was attracted to her was clear from the speed in which he gravitated towards her but he wasn't going to be saying anything about it any time soon.
<p>
She contemplated being subtle but a glance at the man's gooey eyes - they made her feel nauseous but this was for family not for self - and she realised that he would respond only to a direct approach. She told him he was the man she had been looking for all her life. She had to repeat it three times. Her voice, modulated to be scarcely more than a thread of sound, did not reach him. Marienne, like her mother could be commanding but only if you were looking at her face when she spoke. Rogier was staring at her breasts, in blissful ignorance, she hoped, that they were mainly the fabrication of a corsetry wizard.
<p>
Her mother, a woman of ample proportions, had told her not to worry. Marienne had inherited her physique from her father's side of the family, tall and rake-like when full grown. Their women were described as bean poles with fried eggs for chests. Marienne sensed she was already growing again. This added urgency to her quest to find a mate. She could not imagine men as described by her mother wanting to marry any woman if they would have to stand on a chair to look her in the eye.
<p>
But Rogier was not going to find out how much of her came away when she took a bath until after the wedding. And that he did not immediately understand. Rogier did not chase girls, they chased him. Conversation, his weak point, never really came into it. 'When', 'where' and 'have you signed the affidavit' were the only words he used with any frequency. Most of the time, he did not even bother to learn the name of his partner. After all, they did not get together to chat. It took him three weeks to realise that Marienne was not apparently after him, nor willing to accept his rather botched attempt at seduction. (He gave her a huge diamond ring and sat staring at her thighs meaningfully.)
<p> <DIV align="center">
End of part 2
<p>
訳文
<font face=1><DIV align="center">The Hoyden's Husband<br>
<p>
Part 2 - Rogier de Guerles
<p>
By Cartland the Barbarian
<p>
<DIV align="left"> <IMG src="Book/fancy_font/p_59x62.dds" width=51 height=61>eople were admiring her, no question of that, but how was she going to progress to the next phase? Walking up to strange men and asking about their wives and children did not sound particularly ladylike. She though of trying tavern gossip but one step inside the nearest drinking hole made it clear that, dressed as she was, the risks outweighed the potential advantages.
<p>
Marienne was a dab hand with a dagger. She found a certain satisfaction in practising the skill in defiance of her mother's criticism that it was not what a girl should be doing. Her mother never left the castle and had been given an equally sequestered and cosseted upbringing. Contact with 'reality' had been too infrequent to be meaningful. Marienne even in this brief encounter saw how skill with the dagger could prove a life-saver.
<p>
She glanced casually at the ruffians and ne'er-do-wells in the run down drinking establishment, as if she had come to find someone particular. Then she turned and swept out. A barrage of wolf-whistles followed.
<p>
The city of Fleetness was the largest in the region and boasted a wide variety of commercial operations. Marienne checked carefully to find the most exclusive of the clothiers then went inside ostensibly to buy a new robe. The clothes she was wearing, deep purple velvet with a design of red and blue satin, smacked of money. The proprietor, an elderly woman with thick spectacles, came hurrying across. Marienne waved her away imperiously pointing instead to the much younger assistant. The kind of questions to which she needed answers were unlikely to be appreciated by the elderly. When the girl came scurrying up Marienne announced that she wanted to try on everything in the shop.
<p>
The shop girl and proprietor exchanged a glance. Both were too experienced to baulk at the vagaries and general oddness of the rich.
<p>
As the laborious task proceeded Marienne slowly brought the conversation around to a discussion on local men. The shop girl herself was of common stock and clearly did not move in the circles in which Marienne assumed she would need to look for a husband. But such people found gossiping about their social superiors endlessly enjoyable, or so her mother had implied. With this girl at least her mother's observation proved to be accurate.
<p>
And so Marienne first heard about Rogier de Guerles. He was in his early thirties. This was the best age for men, according to the shop girl. Much younger and inexperience made them too gauche and clumsy; much older and saturation jaded their appetites. Somewhere between twenty-eight and thirty-four was the age range that gave the most satisfaction.
<p>
So, why wasn't this wonderful benefit to female kind already married and settled?
<p>
The shop girl was indignant. Once married a man was supposed to be faithful. Rogier married would, at least in theory, deprive a good few members of the younger womanhood of Fleetness from the enjoyment of his favours. In the shop girl's opinion it would also make him boring. Marriage, she observed sagely to Marienne, was the biggest turn off to the enjoyment of sex imaginable. Without the challenge and excitement of the chase, a man was likely to go to seed, get fat and lazy or, worst of all, take up hobbies! This was the second biggest turn off to the enjoyment of sex. A good man should only marry when he reached thirty five and began the inevitable and rapid decline into an uninteresting lump.
<p>
It was not entirely clear to Marienne whether or not the shop girl had enjoyed Rogier's favours herself. As there was no prudery in her conversation, the absence of detailed description, made Marienne guess that she probably had not. Maintaining a naïve and open demeanour, she wondered whether the freedom so beloved by the couturier's assistant might not lead to unwanted pregnancy.
<p>
But no, it seemed. Rogier was stunningly handsome, accomplished as a fighter, musician, dancer, sportsman and arbiter of good taste. He was also highly intelligent. Clearly so if with all these desirable attributes he had managed to stay single. Women were apparently falling over to have his children.
<p>
From Marienne's viewpoint this sounded a sour note and put a heavy dent in her assessment of Rogier's intelligence. 79 children had to be a burden that even the wealthiest of estates would find hard to bear.
<p>
Not at all, she heard. Rogier was far too fly to be caught like that. To experience the exquisite delights of his body a woman had first to sign an undertaking that any - results - of their congress could not in any circumstances be brought home on him. The dent in his credibility was removed. This young man was not only shrewd but calculating, too. With a bit of luck he would regard all women as 'his' by right. How would he respond to one who said ?no??
<p>
Marienne selected a purchase at random. As much as anything she felt she owed the girl a favour for all the information she had imparted. As she waited for the robe to be wrapped, she enquired where Rogier de Guerles might be found.
<p>
Where else but in the palace of the local ruler? She might well have guessed it. The man was falling more and more assuredly into a pattern; one of the male 'categories' of which her mother had warned her. Her mother classified men by type and category. There were but two types - useless and worse than useless. The five categories were; arrogant youth, vainglorious wastrel, grasping parvenu, pompous buffoon and senile dodderer. Rogier de Guerles fell into the second of these.
<p>
Satisfied with the day's findings Marienne returned to her lodgings and spent another long and gruelling session plucking, tweezing, smoothing, combing, painting and generally beautifying. It was a process that lasted six hours, though interrupted half way through by the need for sleep. When she set out for the palace the next day, she was even more glamorous than before.
<p>
One of the things she had brought with her from the castle was a family signet ring. Her family was well known throughout the kingdom but when walking into strange environments saying who you were meant nothing. She would need evidence.
<p>
In all this time she never once worried about her mother. It was very possible that Marienne's absence was as yet unremarked. Her mother's sulks could be lengthy affairs. But even if they knew she had gone what could they do? Her mother was not one to scour the country. Fleetness was the nearest city but it was not the capital nor was it the largest. Marienne had not mentioned the letter from her father so it was highly unlikely her mother would turn up looking for her. Indeed it was highly unlikely her mother was worried. Worrying was something else a lady apparently did not do!
<p>
Feeling confident and determined Marienne marched up the palace steps, sweeping past the guards and stalked into the grand entrance hall. There were a number of beautiful people lounging around. Some were drinking tea, others talking. A few simply sat and stared into space.
<p>
She guessed the identity of Rogier de Guerles at once. He was, Marienne could tell, a model of manly perfection from a physical point of view. He had black hair with a slight reddish sheen cut to frame an oval face of classical good looks. His features were flawless, open and welcoming. He was tall and slim, without being skinny and did everything with an easy grace. Strangely she did not find him attractive. But she knew enough of procreation from her mother to understand that matrimony owed little to desire and much to economics.
<p>
One thing the shop girl had not mentioned - perhaps she did not know it - was that Rogier had another excellent trait for a potential husband. He was almost tongue-tied in her presence. That he was attracted to her was clear from the speed in which he gravitated towards her but he wasn't going to be saying anything about it any time soon.
<p>
She contemplated being subtle but a glance at the man's gooey eyes - they made her feel nauseous but this was for family not for self - and she realised that he would respond only to a direct approach. She told him he was the man she had been looking for all her life. She had to repeat it three times. Her voice, modulated to be scarcely more than a thread of sound, did not reach him. Marienne, like her mother could be commanding but only if you were looking at her face when she spoke. Rogier was staring at her breasts, in blissful ignorance, she hoped, that they were mainly the fabrication of a corsetry wizard.
<p>
Her mother, a woman of ample proportions, had told her not to worry. Marienne had inherited her physique from her father's side of the family, tall and rake-like when full grown. Their women were described as bean poles with fried eggs for chests. Marienne sensed she was already growing again. This added urgency to her quest to find a mate. She could not imagine men as described by her mother wanting to marry any woman if they would have to stand on a chair to look her in the eye.
<p>
But Rogier was not going to find out how much of her came away when she took a bath until after the wedding. And that he did not immediately understand. Rogier did not chase girls, they chased him. Conversation, his weak point, never really came into it. 'When', 'where' and 'have you signed the affidavit' were the only words he used with any frequency. Most of the time, he did not even bother to learn the name of his partner. After all, they did not get together to chat. It took him three weeks to realise that Marienne was not apparently after him, nor willing to accept his rather botched attempt at seduction. (He gave her a huge diamond ring and sat staring at her thighs meaningfully.)
<p> <DIV align="center">
End of part 2
<p>
