again, was more notable than the formal
chivalry of this unmannered man to the person on earth with whom he was
the most familiar. He was conscious of his own innate and often rasping
vivacity and roughness; and he was never forgetful of his first visit to
the Austins and the vow he had registered on his return. There was thus
an artificial element in his punctilio that at times might almost raise
a smile. But it stood on noble grounds; for this was how he sought to
shelter from his own petulance the woman who was to him the symbol of
the household and to the end the beloved of his youth.

I wish in this chapter to chronicle small beer; taking a hasty glance at
some ten years of married life and of professional struggle; and
reserving till the next all the more interesting matter of his cruises.
Of his achievements and their worth it is not for me to speak: his
friend and partner, Sir William Thomson, has contributed a note on the
subject, to which I must refer the reader.[24] He is to conceive in the
meanwhile for himself Fleeming's manifold engagements: his service on
the Committee on Electrical Standards, his lectures on electricity at
Chatham, his Chair at the London University, his partnership with Sir
William Thomson and Mr. Varley in many ingenious patents, his growing
credit with engineers and men of science; and he is to bear in mind that
of all this activity and acquist of reputation, the immediate profit was
scanty. Soon after his marriage, Fleeming had left the service of
Messrs. Liddell and Gordon, and entered into a general engineering
partnership with Mr. Forde, a gentleman in a good way of business. It
was a fortunate partnership in this, that the parties retained their
mutual respect unlessened and separated with regret; but men's affairs,
like men, have their times of sickness, and by one of those
unaccountable variations, for hard upon ten years the business was
disappointing and the profits meagre. "Inditing drafts of German
railways which will never get made": it is thus I find Fleeming, not
without a touch of bitterness, describe his occupation. Even the patents
hung fire at first. There was no salary to rely on; children were coming
and growing up; the prospect was often anxious. In the days of his
courtship, Fleeming had written to Miss Austin a dissuasive picture of
the trials of poverty, assuring her these were no figments but truly
bitter to support; he told her this, he wrote beforehand, so t