But this perfervid disputant was not
always out of key with his audience. One whom he met in the same
house announced that she would never again be happy. 'What does
that signify?' cried Fleeming. 'We are not here to be happy, but
to be good.' And the words (as his hearer writes to me) became to
her a sort of motto during life.
From Fairbairn's and Manchester, Fleeming passed to a railway
survey in Switzerland, and thence again to Mr. Penn's at Greenwich,
where he was engaged as draughtsman. There in 1856, we find him in
'a terribly busy state, finishing up engines for innumerable gun-
boats and steam frigates for the ensuing campaign.' From half-past
eight in the morning till nine or ten at night, he worked in a
crowded office among uncongenial comrades, 'saluted by chaff,
generally low personal and not witty,' pelted with oranges and
apples, regaled with dirty stories, and seeking to suit himself
with his surroundings or (as he writes it) trying to be as little
like himself as possible.
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