Mrs. Phillips had no acquaintances in Melbourne; but Mr. Phillips and Dr. Grant knew a good many people, who were disposed to be very friendly to Harriett, but she did not feel very grateful for such kindness.  She fancied that her position and education, and her being recently out from England ought to give her an overpowering prestige in these half-savage lands, and though she lost no chance of laughing or censuring anything which she thought colonial, she could not bear being talked of as a new chum, whose opinions should be kept for two years at least before they were worth anything, and whose advice was probably worth nothing at any time.

Amongst other subjects for censure, the great freedom of manners, particularly amongst young people of different sexes towards each other, struck Miss Phillips forcibly.  She had observed at evening parties, at picnics, and at places of public amusement, the very unrestrained way in which they talked and behaved, and she thought the colonial girls were badly trained, and that they ought to be more carefully watched by mothers and chaperones.  At the same time she took full latitude herself, and did many things on the strength of her being in Australia, where people might do as they liked, that surprised even the colonial girls themselves.

If she remarked on their flirtations with their old friends, they could not help observing Miss Phillips’s prepossession towards her new acquaintance, and laughing at the manner in which the two seemed wrapped up in each other.  How could she endure his returning to Ben More, and leaving her, perhaps, for another month in Melbourne without his society, was a question which they frequently put to each other; but she solved that difficulty to her own satisfaction and as much to their amusement.

“I am very sorry to leave you,” said Dr. Grant one day to the object of his attentions, “but I must go.  Business must not be neglected.  I cannot be flying about like Brandon, letting my affairs go to ruin.  I hope you will not be long in coming to Wiriwilta, Miss Phillips.”

“Not very long I suppose,” said Harriett.  “Indeed, I think there is nothing to prevent Mrs. Phillips from going home now, if she would only believe so.”

“Nothing whatever,” said Grant.

“I am quite wearying to see Wiriwilta,” said Harriett:  “the children’s letters are quite rapturous about its beauties, and Miss Melville, too, seems very much pleased.  You will like Miss Melville, I am sure.  You like Scotch people, I know.”

“If I do not like Miss Melville better than her sister, my liking will not go very far,” said Grant.

“Do you know Stanley thought Alice quite pretty at first—­I don’t see it.  Miss Melville is what people call plain, but I prefer her appearance to Alice’s, and she is very clever and strong-minded.  I quite expect you to fall in love with Miss Melville,” said Harriett, with a little laugh.