MARRIED LIFE 86 



travellers often have a weary time of it. So, you 

 may say, have those in the dusty roads.' Yet he 

 was himself a very stern respecter of the hedge- 

 rows ; sought safety and found dignity in the 

 obvious path of conduct ; and would palter with 

 no simple and recognised duty of his epoch. Of 

 marriage in particular, of the bond so formed, 

 of the obligations incurred, of the debt men owe 

 to their children, he conceived in a truly antique 

 spirit : not to blame others, but to constrain 

 himself. It was not to blame, I repeat, that he 

 held these views ; for others, he could make a 

 large allowance ; and yet he tacitly expected of his 

 friends and his wife a high standard of behaviour. 

 Nor was it always easy to wear the armour of 

 that ideal. 



Acting upon these beliefs ; conceiving that he 

 had indeed ' given himself ' (in the full meaning of 

 these words) for better, for worse ; painfully alive 

 to his defects of temper and deficiency in charm ; 

 resolute to make up for these ; thinking last of 

 himself : Fleeming was in some ways the very man 

 to have made a noble, uphill fight of an unfortunate 

 marriage. In other ways, it is true he was one of 

 the most unfit for such a trial. And it was his 

 beautiful destiny to remain to the last hour the 

 same absolute and romantic lover, who had shown 

 to his new bride the flag-draped vessels in the 

 Mersey. No fate is altogether easy ; but trials are 



