audience. Mr. Carter in Sir Toby Belch it
would be hard to beat. Mr. Hole in broad farce, or as the herald in the
_Trachiniae_, showed true stage talent. As for Mrs. Jenkin, it was for
her the rest of us existed and were forgiven; her powers were an endless
spring of pride and pleasure to her husband; he spent hours hearing and
schooling her in private; and when it came to the performance, though
there was perhaps no one in the audience more critical, none was more
moved than Fleeming. The rest of us did not aspire so high. There were
always five performances and weeks of busy rehearsal; and whether we
came to sit and stifle as the prompter, to be the dumb (or rather the
inarticulate) recipients of Carter's dog whip in the _Taming of the
Shrew_, or, having earned our spurs, to lose one more illusion in a
leading part, we were always sure at least of a long and an exciting
holiday in mirthful company.

In this laborious annual diversion Fleeming's part was large. I never
thought him an actor, but he was something of a mimic, which stood him
in stead. Thus he had seen Got in Poirier; and his own Poirier, when he
came to play it, breathed meritoriously of the model. The last part I
saw him play was Triplet, and at first I thought it promised well. But
alas! the boys went for a holiday, missed a train, and were not heard of
at home till late at night. Poor Fleeming, the man who never hesitated
to give his sons a chisel or a gun, or to send them abroad in a canoe or
on a horse, toiled all day at his rehearsal, growing hourly paler,
Triplet growing hourly less meritorious. And though the return of the
children, none the worse for their little adventure, brought the colour
back into his face, it could not restore him to his part. I remember
finding him seated on the stairs in some rare moment of quiet during the
subsequent performances. "Hullo, Jenkin," said I, "you look down in the
mouth." "My dear boy," said he, "haven't you heard me? I have not had
one decent intonation from beginning to end."

But indeed he never supposed himself an actor; took a part, when he took
any, merely for convenience, as one takes a hand at whist; and found his
true service and pleasure in the more congenial business of the manager.
Augier, Racine, Shakespeare, Aristophanes in Hookham Frere's
translation, Sophocles and AEschylus in Lewis Campbell's, such were some
of the authors whom he introduced to his public. In putting these upon
the stage,