'Don't tell me so, sir,' returned Mr Dorrit, in a mighty heat. 'You have
affronted me. You have heaped insults upon me. How dare you? Explain
yourself.' Ah, just Heaven, then, how could the host explain himself when he had
nothing more to explain; when he had only to apologise, and confide
himself to the so well-known magnanimity of Monseigneur!
'I tell you, sir,' said Mr Dorrit, panting with anger, 'that you
separate me--ha--from other gentlemen; that you make distinctions
between me and other gentlemen of fortune and station. I demand of you,
why? I wish to know on--ha--what authority, on whose authority. Reply
sir. Explain. Answer why.'
Permit the landlord humbly to submit to Monsieur the Courier then, that
Monseigneur, ordinarily so gracious, enraged himself without cause.
There was no why. Monsieur the Courier would represent to Monseigneur,
that he deceived himself in suspecting that there was any why, but the
why his devoted servant had already had the honour to present to him.
The very genteel lady-'Silence!' cried Mr Dorrit. 'Hold your tongue! I will hear no more
of the very genteel lady; I will hear no more of you. Look at this
family--my family--a family more genteel than any lady. You have treated
this family with disrespect; you have been insolent to this family. I'll
ruin you. Ha--send for the horses, pack the carriages, I'll not set foot
in this man's house again!'
No one had interfered in the dispute, which was beyond the French
colloquial powers of Edward Dorrit, Esquire, and scarcely within the
province of the ladies. Miss Fanny, however, now supported her father
with great bitterness; declaring, in her native tongue, that it was
quite clear there was something special in this man's impertinence;
and that she considered it important that he should be, by some means,
forced to give up his authority for making distinctions between that
family and other wealthy families. What the reasons of his presumption
could be, she was at a loss to imagine; but reasons he must have, and
they ought to be torn from him.
All the guides, mule-drivers, and idlers in the yard, had made
themselves parties to the angry conference, and were much impressed by
the courier's now bestirring himself to get the carriages out. With the
aid of some dozen people to each wheel, this was done at a great cost of
noise; and then the loading was proceeded with, pending the arrival of
the horses from the post-house.
But the very genteel lady's English chariot being already horsed and at
the inn-door, the landlord had slipped up-stairs to represent his hard
case. This was notified to the yard by his now coming down the staircase
in attendance on the gentleman and the lady, and by his pointing out the
offended majesty of Mr Dorrit to them with a significant motion of his
hand. 'Beg your pardon,' said the gentleman, detaching himself from the
lady, and coming forward. 'I am a man of few words and a bad hand at an
explanation--but lady here is extremely anxious that there should be no
Row. Lady--a mother of mine, in point of fact--wishes me to say that she
hopes no Row.' Mr Dorrit, still panting under his injury, saluted the gentleman, and
saluted the lady, in a distant, final, and invincible manner.