It was a
very thankful party that sat down that evening to meat in the Hotel
at Gairloch. And perhaps, although the thing was new in the
family, no one was much surprised when Fleeming said grace over
that meal. Thenceforward he continued to observe the form, so that
there was kept alive in his house a grateful memory of peril and
deliverance. But there was nothing of the muff in Fleeming; he
thought it a good thing to escape death, but a becoming and a
healthful thing to run the risk of it; and what is rarer, that
which he thought for himself, he thought for his family also. In
spite of the terrors of Rhu Reay, the cruise was persevered in and
brought to an end under happier conditions.
One year, instead of the Highlands, Alt Aussee, in the Steiermark,
was chosen for the holidays; and the place, the people, and the
life delighted Fleeming. He worked hard at German, which he had
much forgotten since he was a boy; and what is highly
characteristic, equally hard at the patois, in which he learned to
excel.
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