206 MEMOIR OF FLEEMING JENKIN 



goes up to Scotland ' ; but he grew at last, I 

 think, the most generally liked of all the members. 

 To those who truly knew and loved him, who had 

 tasted the real sweetness of his nature, Fleeming's 

 porcupine ways had always been a matter of keen 

 regret. They introduced him to their own friends 

 with fear ; sometimes recalled the step with 

 mortification. It was not possible to look on 

 with patience while a man so loveable thwarted 

 love at every step. But the course of time and 

 the ripening of his nature brought a cure. It 

 was at the Savile that he first remarked a change ; 

 it soon spread beyond the walls of the club. 

 Presently I find him writing : ' Will you kindly 

 explain what has happened to me ? All my life 

 I have talked a good deal, with the almost un- 

 failing result of making people sick of the sound 

 of my tongue. It appeared to me that I had 

 various things to say, and I had no malevolent 

 feelings, but nevertheless the result was that 

 expressed above. Well, lately some change has 

 happened. If I talk to a person one day, they 

 must have me the next. Faces light up when 

 they see me. — " Ah, I say come here " — " come 

 and dine with me." It 's the most preposterous 

 thing I ever experienced. It is curiously pleasant. 

 You have enjoyed it all your life, and therefore 

 cannot conceive how bewildering a burst of it is 

 for the first time at forty-nine.' And this late 



