in a lady
and alone too, but I thought it best upon the whole however difficult and even
apparently improper though Mr. F's Aunt would have willingly accompanied me and
as a character of great force and spirit would probably have struck one
possessed of such a knowledge of life as no doubt with so many changes must have
been acquired, for Mr. F himself said frequently that although well educated in
the neighbourhood of Blackheath at as high as eighty guineas which is a good
deal for parents and the plate kept back too on going away but that is more a
meanness than its value that he had learnt more in his first year as a
commercial traveller with a large commission on the sale of an article that
nobody would hear of much less buy which preceded the wine trade a long time
than in the whole six years in that academy conducted by a college Bachelor,
though why a Bachelor more clever than a married man I do not see and never did
but pray excuse me that is not the point.«
    Mr. Dorrit stood rooted to the carpet, a statue of mystification.
    »I must openly admit that I have no pretensions,« said Flora, »but having
known the dear little thing which under altered circumstances appears a liberty
but is not so intended and Goodness knows there was no favour in half-a-crown a
day to such a needle as herself but quite the other way and as to anything
lowering in it far from it the labourer is worthy of his hire and I am sure I
only wish he got it oftener and more animal food and less rheumatism in the back
and legs poor soul.«
    »Madam,« said Mr. Dorrit, recovering his breath by a great effort, as the
relict of the late Mr. Finching stopped to take hers; »madam,« said Mr. Dorrit,
very red in the face, »if I understand you to refer to - ha - to anything in the
antecedents of - hum - a daughter of mine, involving - ha hum - daily
compensation, madam, I beg to observe that the - ha - fact, assuming it - ha -
to be fact, never was within my knowledge. Hum. I should not have permitted it.
Ha. Never! Never!«
    »Unnecessary to pursue the subject,« returned Flora, »and would not have
mentioned it on any account except as supposing it a favourable and only letter
of introduction but as to being fact no doubt whatever and you may set your mind
at rest for the very dress I have on now can prove it and sweetly made though