Fleeming
Jenkin seen him weep; for the rest of the time his wife - his
commanding officer, now become his trying child - was served not
with patience alone, but with a lovely happiness of temper. He had
belonged all his life to the ancient, formal, speechmaking,
compliment-presenting school of courtesy; the dictates of this code
partook in his eyes of the nature of a duty; and he must now be
courteous for two. Partly from a happy illusion, partly in a
tender fraud, he kept his wife before the world as a still active
partner. When he paid a call, he would have her write 'with love'
upon a card; or if that (at the moment) was too much, he would go
armed with a bouquet and present it in her name. He even wrote
letters for her to copy and sign: an innocent substitution, which
may have caused surprise to Ruffini or to Vernon Lee, if they ever
received, in the hand of Mrs. Jenkin the very obvious reflections
of her husband. He had always adored this wife whom he now tended
and sought to represent in correspondence: it was now, if not
before, her turn to repay the compliment; mind enough was left her
to perceive his unwearied kindness; and as her moral qualities
seemed to survive quite unimpaired, a childish love and gratitude
were his reward.
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