, 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.«
    Mr. Flintwinch had by this time poured himself out another cup of tea, which
he was swallowing in gulps as before, with his eyes directed to the invalid.
    »You may be heart-free here, sir,« she returned to Mr. Blandois. »Those
letters are not intended, I believe, for the initials of any name.«
    »Of a motto, perhaps,« said Mr. Blandois, casually.
    »Of a sentence. They have always stood, I believe, for Do Not Forget!«
    »And naturally,« said Mr. Blandois, replacing the watch, and stepping
backward to his former chair, »you do not forget.«
    Mr. Flintwinch, finishing his tea, not only took a longer gulp than he had
taken yet, but made his succeeding pause under new circumstances: that is to
say, with his head thrown back and his cup held still at his lips, while his
eyes were still directed at the invalid. She had that force of face, and that
concentrated air of collecting her firmness or obstinacy, which represented in
her case what would have been gesture and action in another, as she replied with
her deliberate strength of speech:
    »No, sir, I do not forget. To lead a life as monotonous as mine has been
during many years, is not the way to forget. To lead a life of self-correction
is not the way to forget. To be sensible of having (as we all have, every one of
us, all the children of Adam!) offences to expiate and peace to make, does not
justify the desire 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?
    »All expressed, madam,« said Mr. Blandois, with his smoothest bow and his
white hand on his breast, »by the word naturally, which I am proud to have had
sufficient apprehension and appreciation (but without appreciation I could not
be Blandois) to employ.«
    »Pardon me, sir,« she returned, »if
