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. He won a prize at a Schutzen-fest; and though he hunted
chamois without much success, brought down more interesting game in
the shape of the Styrian peasants, and in particular of his gillie,
Joseph. This Joseph was much of a character; and his appreciations
of Fleeming have a fine note of their own. The bringing up of the
boys he deigned to approve of: 'FAST SO GUT WIE EIN BAUER,' was
his trenchant criticism. The attention and courtly respect with
which Fleeming surrounded his wife, was something of a puzzle to
the philosophic gillie; he announced in the village that Mrs.
Jenkin - DIE SILBERNE FRAU, as the folk had prettily named her from
some silver ornaments - was a 'GEBORENE GRAFIN' who had married
beneath her; and when Fleeming explained what he called the English
theory (though indeed it was quite his own) of married relations,
Joseph, admiring but unconvinced, avowed it was 'GAR SCHON.
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