Iviii MEMOIR 



a backward movement in public thought since the time of Edward 

 Barren, or by the change from enlightened Norwich to barbarian 

 London, I have no means of judging. 



Fleeming When Fleeming presented his letter, he fell in love afc first 



Austins ^ght w ^ fl Mrs. Austin and the life and atmosphere of the house. 

 There was in the society of the Austins, outward, stoical con- 

 formers to the world, something gravely suggestive of essential 

 eccentricity, something unpretentiously breathing of intellectual 

 effort, that could not fail to hit the fancy of this hot-brained boy. 

 The unbroken enamel of courtesy, the self-restraint, the dignified 

 kindness of these married folk, had besides a particular attrac- 

 tion for their visitor. He could not but compare what he saw, 

 with what he knew of his mother and himself. Whatever 

 virtues Fleeming possessed, he could never count on being civil ; 

 whatever brave, true-hearted qualities he was able to admire in 

 Mrs. Jenkin, mildness of demeanour was not one of them. And 

 here he found persons who were the equals of his mother and 

 himself in intellect and width of interest, and the equals of his 

 father in mild urbanity of disposition. Show Fleeming an 

 active virtue, and he always loved it. He went away from that 

 house struck through with admiration, and vowing to himself 

 that his own married life should be upon that pattern, his 

 wife (whoever she might be) like Eliza Barron, himself such 

 another husband as Alfred Austin. What is more strange, he 

 not only brought away, but left behind him, golden opinions. 

 He must have been he was, I am told a trying lad; but 

 there shone out of him such a light of innocent candour, enthu- 

 siasm, intelligence and appreciation, that to persons already 

 some way forward in years, and thus able to enjoy indulgently 

 the perennial comedy of youth, the sight of him was delightful. 

 By a pleasant coincidence, there was one person in the house 

 whom he did not appreciate and who did not appreciate him : 

 Anne Austin, his future wife. His boyish vanity ruffled her ; 

 his appearance, never impressive, was then, by reason of ob- 

 trusive boyishness, still less so ; she found occasion to put him 

 in the wrong by correcting a false quantity ; and when Mr. 

 Austin, after doing his visitor the almost unheard-of honour 



