Ix MEMOIR 



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 

 disinterestedness, l 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 

 powerful, 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 a model of honour, hardly of tact ; to conceal love 

 from the loved one, to court her parents, to be silent and dis- 

 creet till these are won, and then without preparation to ap- 

 proach the lady these are not arts that I would recommend 

 for imitation. They lead to final refusal. Nothing saved 

 Fleeming from that fate, but one circumstance that cannot be 

 counted upon the hearty favour of the mother, and one gift 

 that is inimitable and that never failed him throughout life, the 

 gift of a nature essentially noble and outspoken. A happy and 

 high-minded anger flashed through his despair : it won for him 

 his wife. 



Nearly two years passed before it was possible to marry : 

 two years of activity, now in London ; now at Birkenhead, 

 fitting out ships, inventing new machinery for new purposes, 

 and dipping into electrical experiment ; now in the Elba on his 

 first telegraph cruise between Sardinia and Algiers : a busy 

 and delightful period of bounding ardour, incessant toil, grow- 

 ing hope and fresh interests, with behind and through all, the 

 image of his beloved. A few extracts, from his correspondence 

 with his betrothed will give the note of these truly joyous years. 

 1 My profession gives me all the excitement and interest I ever 

 hope for, but the sorry jade is obviously jealous of you/- 



