78 MEMOIR OF FLEEMING JENKIN 



exercise, there must have sprung up at once the 

 hope of what is called by the world success. But 

 from these low beginnings, it was a far look upward 

 to Miss Austin : the favour of the loved one seems 

 always more than problematical to any lover ; the 

 consent of parents must be always more than doubt- 

 ful to a young man with a small salary and no capital 

 except capacity and hope. But Fleeming was not 

 the lad to lose any good thing for the lack of trial ; 

 and at length, in the autumn of 1857, this boyish- 

 sized, boyish-mannered and superlatively ill-dressed 

 young engineer, entered the house of the Austins, 

 with such sinkings as we may fancy, and asked leave 

 to pay his addresses to the daughter. Mrs. Austin 

 already loved him like a son, she was but too glad 

 to give him her consent ; Mr. Austin reserved the 

 right to inquire into his character ; from neither 

 was there a word about his prospects, by neither 

 was his income mentioned. ' Are these people,' 

 he wrote, struck with wonder at this dignified dis- 

 interestedness, ' are these people the same as other 

 people ? ' It was not till he was armed with this 

 permission, that Miss Austin even suspected the 

 nature of his hopes : so strong, in this unmannerly 

 boy, was the principle of true courtesy ; so power- 

 ful, in this impetuous nature, the springs of self- 

 repression. And yet a boy he was ; a boy in heart 

 and mind; and it was with a boy's chivalry and 

 frankness that he won his wife. His conduct was 



