In
Styria as in the Highlands, the same course was followed: Fleeming
threw himself as fully as he could into the life and occupations of
the native people, studying everywhere their dances and their
language, and conforming, always with pleasure, to their rustic
etiquette. Just as the ball at Alt Aussee was designed for the
taste of Joseph, the parting feast at Attadale was ordered in every
particular to the taste of Murdoch the Keeper. Fleeming was not
one of the common, so-called gentlemen, who take the tricks of
their own coterie to be eternal principles of taste. He was aware,
on the other hand, that rustic people dwelling in their own places,
follow ancient rules with fastidious precision, and are easily
shocked and embarrassed by what (if they used the word) they would
have to call the vulgarity of visitors from town. And he, who was
so cavalier with men of his own class, was sedulous to shield the
more tender feelings of the peasant; he, who could be so trying in
a drawing-room, was even punctilious in the cottage. It was in all
respects a happy virtue.
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