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Taking it in his hand, he read these entries. William Dorrit, Esquire Frederick Dorrit, Esquire Edward Dorrit, Esquire Miss Dorrit Miss Amy Dorrit Mrs General and Suite. From France to Italy. Mr and Mrs Henry Gowan. From France to Italy. To which he added, in a small complicated hand, ending with a long lean flourish, not unlike a lasso thrown at all the rest of the names: Blandois. Paris.
'I can tell you what it is to me, said Gowan. 'Bread and cheese. One must eat! So come along, my Blandois. Mr Dorrit received them in the presence of his daughters and of Mr Sparkler, who happened, by some surprising accident, to be calling there. 'How are you, Sparkler? said Gowan carelessly. 'When you have to live by your mother wit, old boy, I hope you may get on better than I do.
The last words were spoken aloud, as the vigilant Blandois stopped, turned his head, and looked at them from the bottom of the staircase. Assuredly he did look then, though he looked his politest, as if any real philanthropist could have desired no better employment than to lash a great stone to his neck, and drop him into the water flowing beyond the dark arched gateway in which he stood.
'But I have not received any letter of advice from anywhere respecting anybody of the name of Blandois. 'Just so, said the stranger. 'JUST so, said Jeremiah. Mr Blandois, not at all put out by this omission on the part of the correspondents of the house of Clennam and Co., took his pocket-book from his breast-pocket, selected a letter from that receptacle, and handed it to Mr Flintwinch.
'D. N. F. was some tender, lovely, fascinating fair-creature, I make no doubt, observed Mr Blandois, as he snapped on the case again. 'I adore her memory on the assumption. Unfortunately for my peace of mind, I adore but too readily. It may be a vice, it may be a virtue, but adoration of female beauty and merit constitutes three parts of my character, madam.
A bystander, informed of the previous appearance of Monsieur Blandois in that room, would have observed a difference in Mrs Clennam's present reception of him. Her face was not one to betray it; and her suppressed manner, and her set voice, were equally under her control.
Mistress Affery, sensible of the danger in which her identity stood, relinquished the tea-pot as her husband seized it, put her apron over her head, and in a twinkling vanished. The visitor gradually broke into a smile, and sat down again. 'You'll excuse her, Mr Blandois, said Jeremiah, pouring out the tea himself, 'she's failing and breaking up; that's what she's about. Do you take sugar, sir?
'I say, gracefully departed, because it was graceful to retire without alarming a lady. To be morally graceful, not less than physically, is a part of the character of Rigaud Blandois. It was also politic, as leaving you with something overhanging you, to expect me again with a little anxiety on a day not named. But your slave is politic. By Heaven, madame, politic! Let us return.
To lead a life of self-correction is not the way to forget. Therefore I have long dismissed it, and I neither forget nor wish to forget. Mr Flintwinch, who had latterly been shaking the sediment at the bottom of his tea-cup, round and round, here gulped it down, and putting the cup in the tea-tray, as done with, turned his eyes upon Mr Blandois as if to ask him what he thought of that?
'I don't know, said Mistress Affery, with her disengaged left hand extended towards the visitor. 'It ain't me. It's him! 'What does this good woman mean? cried Mr Blandois, turning white, hot, and slowly rising with a look of such deadly wrath that it contrasted surprisingly with the slight force of his words. 'How is it possible to understand this good creature?
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