THE LAST CHAPTER 213 



CHAPTER VII 



1875-1885 



Mrs. Jenkin's Illness — Captain Jenkin — The Golden Wed- 

 ding—Death of Uncle John—Death of Mr. and Mrs. 

 Austin — Illness and Death of the Captain — Death of 

 Mrs. Jenkin — Effect on Fleeming — Telpherage — The 

 End. 



And now I must resume my narrative for that 

 melancholy business that concludes all human 

 histories. In January of the year 1875, while 

 Fleeming's sky was still unclouded, he was reading 

 Smiles. ' I read my engineers' lives steadily,' 

 he writes, ' but find biographies depressing. I 

 suspect one reason to be that misfortunes and 

 trials can be graphically described, but happiness 

 and the causes of happiness either cannot be 

 or are not. A grand new branch of literature 

 opens to my view : a drama in which people 

 begin in a poor way and end, after getting gradu- 

 ally happier, in an ecstasy of enjoyment. The 

 common novel is not the thing at all. It gives 

 struggle followed by relief. I want each act to 

 close on a new and triumphant happiness, which 

 has been steadily growing all the while. This is 



