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, which will be found in the
Appendix, and to which I must refer the reader. 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 &
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
these 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