His marriage was the one decisive incident of his career; from that
moment until the day of his death, he had one thought to which all
the rest were tributary, the thought of his wife. No one could
know him even slightly, and not remark the absorbing greatness of
that sentiment; nor can any picture of the man be drawn that does
not in proportion dwell upon it. This is a delicate task; but if
we are to leave behind us (as we wish) some presentment of the
friend we have lost, it is a task that must be undertaken.
For all his play of mind and fancy, for all his indulgence - and,
as time went on, he grew indulgent - Fleeming had views of duty
that were even stern. He was too shrewd a student of his fellow-
men to remain long content with rigid formulae of conduct. Iron-
bound, impersonal ethics, the procrustean bed of rules, he soon saw
at their true value as the deification of averages. 'As to Miss (I
declare I forget her name) being bad,' I find him writing, 'people
only mean that she has broken the Decalogue - which is not at all
the same thing.
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