Mr. Dempster was rather an elderly man, who had lost his wife and all his family, with the exception of one daughter, who was married and settled in South Australia.  Though so enthusiastic a believer in spiritualism, he was a very shrewd and well-informed man in mundane matters.  He had been a very old colonist on the Adelaide side; and, having been a townsman, had taken a more active part in politics than the Victorian squatters, Phillips and Brandon.  They were all in the full tide of talk about the advantages and disadvantages of giving to their infant States constitutional government, and allowing each colony to frame its constitution for itself.  The good and evil effects of manhood suffrage and vote by ballot Francis for the first time heard discussed by people who had lived under these systems, and English, French, and American blunders in the science of politics looked at from a new and independent point of view.  At what Jane and Elsie considered the most interesting part of the conversation, Mrs. Phillips and Harriett, who cared for none of these subjects, gave the signal for the ladies to withdraw, so they had to leave with them.

Jane saw the children to bed, and Elsie got on with Mrs. Phillips’s bonnet, while the gentlemen remained in the dining room; but both reappeared in the drawing-room by the time they came upstairs.  Elsie did not like to disappoint any one, and the idea struck her that if she got up very early in the morning, and things went all well with her, she could finish Harriett’s bonnet also in time, for really Mrs. Phillips’s new one would make her sister-in-law’s look very shabby.  It was the first new bonnet she had been trusted to make since she came; she had had Carte Blanche for the materials, and had pleased herself with the style, and Elsie believed it would be her chef-d’oeuvre.  The idea of giving Miss Phillips such an unexpected pleasure made her feel quite kindly disposed towards her, though the feeling was not reciprocated, for as Harriett did not know of Elsie’s intentions, she could not be supposed to be grateful for them; but, on the contrary, she felt a grudge at her for enjoying herself in this way at the expense of her bonnet.  Harriett Phillips played and sang very well; her father was fond of music, and that taste had been very well cultivated for her time and opportunities, and she had kept up with all the modern music very meritoriously.  Perhaps it was this, more than anything else, that had made her Dr. Phillips’s favourite daughter, for in all other things Georgiana was more self-forgetful and more sympathising.  Stanley, too, admired his sister’s accomplishment; he had missed the delightful little family concerts and the glee-singing that he had left for his bush life, and if it could have been possible for his wife to acquire music it would certainly have been a boon to him; but as she had no ear and no taste, even he saw that it was impracticable; but Emily was to be an accomplished musician.  She did not go to bed with the little ones, but sat up to play her two little airs to her papa’s friends—­to teach her confidence, Mrs. Phillips said, but, in reality, to give her a little spur to application.