Alnaschar he was
indeed; beholding about him a world all changed, a world filled
with telpherage wires; and seeing not only himself and family but
all his friends enriched. It was his pleasure, when the company
was floated, to endow those whom he liked with stock; one, at
least, never knew that he was a possible rich man until the grave
had closed over his stealthy benefactor. And however Fleeming
chafed among material and business difficulties, this rainbow
vision never faded; and he, like his father and his mother, may be
said to have died upon a pleasure. But the strain told, and he
knew that it was telling. 'I am becoming a fossil,' he had written
five years before, as a kind of plea for a holiday visit to his
beloved Italy. 'Take care! If I am Mr. Fossil, you will be Mrs.
Fossil, and Jack will be Jack Fossil, and all the boys will be
little fossils, and then we shall be a collection.' There was no
fear more chimerical for Fleeming; years brought him no repose; he
was as packed with energy, as fiery in hope, as at the first;
weariness, to which he began to be no stranger, distressed, it did
not quiet him.
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