The idea of befriending Jane’s sister in this way was not disagreeable to Mrs. Phillips.  The invitation was given, and joyfully accepted.  Mr. Brandon would delay his visit to the north till it was about the time for Elsie to come down, and would take care of her on the way.

Jane felt happy in this new proof of the kind feeling of the family towards her, and accompanied them to Derbyshire with a lighter heart.

Mr. Phillip’s father was a medical man, with an excellent country practice, intelligent, chatty, and hospitable.  He had married a Miss Stanley, who was not only of very good birth, but who had a considerable fortune, which was settled on her children.  Her eldest son’s portion of it had been the nucleus of the handsome fortune he had realised in Victoria.  The old gentleman had been long a widower, and his two unmarried daughters lived with him, and kept his house, while his younger son had been brought up to assist his father in his profession, and eventually to succeed to the practice, but he, seeing how well his brother Stanley had got on, had a great hankering after an unlimited sheep-run in Australia.

The Misses Phillips were not young, but they were well dressed, well mannered, and good looking.  There was a happy, prosperous, confident air about both of the sisters, and especially about the younger of the two.  They were the darlings of their father, the first in their own set of acquaintances, a great deal taken notice of, on account both of their mother’s social position and their father’s professional talent, by county families; successful in domestic management, successful in society, of good understanding, and well educated, the Misses Phillips were looked up to very much, and felt that they deserved to be so.  They were much disappointed in their brother’s wife; from his letters, and the likenesses he had sent home, they were prepared for a romantic and interesting, as well as beautiful woman, but her want of education and of understanding, which they soon discovered on personal acquaintance, was most mortifying to ladies who thought they possessed both in a high degree, and they were quite distressed at having to introduce her into society.  The husband saw and felt their coldness towards his wife, while Mrs. Phillips filled his ears with complaints of their uppishness, and their disagreeable ways.

Mr. Phillips had been so proud and so fond of his sisters, and had talked so much to her about their beauty, their cleverness, and their goodness, that she thought she too had a right to be disappointed.  Their beauty had diminished during his fourteen years’ absence in Australia; their cleverness only made her uncomfortable; and their goodness did not seem to extend to her.  What right had a couple of ordinary-looking old maids to look down on her, a married woman of so many years’ standing, so much younger and handsomer?  She liked Jane Melville far better than either of her sisters-in-law, for, with more real mental superiority, there was an inferiority in position that set her at her ease.