Mr. Phillips was a little disappointed with his sisters, though he would scarcely own it to himself.  The blooming girls of twenty-one and seventeen whom he had left were somewhat faded in the course of the many years’ absence; and the very different lives that they had led made them take different views of most subjects.  Their opinions had hardened separately, and when they met again they did not harmonize as they had done.  His sisters were more aristocratic in all their tastes and feelings than the Australian squatter; they had scarcely mixed at all with children, and had no patience with his wild bush children, whose frankness and audacity were so terribly embarrassing; and they had shown their disappointment at his MESALLIANCE very decidedly.

But on this occasion things went on much better; both Mrs. Phillips and the children were decidedly improved, and the sisters-in-law gave Miss Melville the credit of it, and liked her accordingly.

Miss Melville was presentable anywhere, though she was only a governess.  The tale which Mr. Phillips told of her reverse of fortune interested them all, particularly the old gentleman.

He had met with Jane’s uncle when he had been studying in Paris, who was then only a younger son, and had been just released from the strict discipline of a Scotch puritanical home, and not being ambitious of filling the subordinate office of “Jock, the laird’s brother,” wished to learn a profession, and thought he might try medicine as well as anything else.  He was then clever, idle, and extravagant, but a great favourite with everybody.  Jane questioned Dr. Phillips about the date of this acquaintance, but it had occurred before the supposed time of Francis’s birth, so that he could throw no light on that question.  Still she wrote to Francis on the subject, though she had thought his letters lately had been colder than before, and feared that his friendship for her was not so deeply seated as hers for him.  Willing to show that her feelings towards him were unchanged, she entered into the same minute description of the family she was at present living with as she had done of the pupils, and the employers, and the visitors in London.  She was at this time more interested in Dr. Phillips and his younger son Vivian than in any of the ladies of the family, and felt particularly puzzled to explain the desire of the latter to leave the country and his profession, when he had talents quite sufficient to make a good figure, for such a life as Mr. Brandon’s had been in the Australian bush.  He was the most scientific man whom Jane had met with in society; and, as he met with very little sympathy from either of his sisters in his chemical experiments or his geological researches, he appreciated her intelligent and inquiring turn of mind.  There were many things he could throw light on which would be of service to Tom Lowrie, and were mentioned in her letters to him.  Young Dr. Vivian Phillips had submitted to a great deal