“And where is your sister, Miss Melville?  Has she come out to Australia with you?  Is she quite well?” asked Brandon.

“Quite well,” said Harriett; “she is in Melbourne with Mrs. Phillips.  We expect them out in a week or two, or perhaps as much as three weeks, for Mrs. Phillips fancies she cannot stand the journey for some time.”

“Alice has not seen Wiriwilta yet,” said Emily.  “I know she will think it very pretty; Miss Melville likes it very much.”

“And you have got quite strong, Emily?” said Brandon.

“Quite strong again.  I can walk to the water-holes near the grove of young gum-trees and back again without being a hit tired.  We have such lovely walks every day with Miss Melville.  And do you know Mr. Brandon, my dear old Cockey died just after you and Edgar went away to Adelaide; but I have got another—­such a beauty—­and two such lovely parrots.  Jim got them for me.  You can’t think how glad Harriett and I were to see Jim.  And Mrs. Bennett has got another baby, and I’m to be godmother, and it’s to be called Emily; and Mrs. Tuck has got another too, ever so fat.  We have not seen our own baby brother yet.”

“But how does it happen that you did not write to me?  I got one letter telling me little Eva was dead, and that you were getting better; but next month I did not hear a syllable, good or bad, from any of you.”

“Because we were on board ship by that time, before the mail from Australia came in.  Papa thought we would be all here sooner than we were—­but it was a delightful voyage.  We had Mr. Dempster—­you know Mr. Dempster—­and such a lot of nice Adelaide children.  I was so sorry to bid good-bye to Rose; she was my friend all the voyage; and there were some very nice gentlemen, too.  It was quite as nice a voyage as the last, only that Miss Melville made us do lessons all the time; and perhaps after all it was as well that she did.”

“I never heard such a chatterbox as you are, Emily,” said her aunt.

“Did you find the voyage pleasant, Miss Phillips?” asked Brandon.

“Oh, yes, very pleasant indeed.”

“I did not think you would condescend to visit our rude latitudes,” said Brandon.

“Oh, I am really quite enjoying my visit.  Stanley was greatly pleased at my proposal to come out, for he thought it such an excellent thing for the family.  I am only on a visit, you know.  I cannot say how I should like Victoria for a permanence, but I like the novelty for the present.”

“And your cousin is in Parliament, I hear, and likely to distinguish himself, Miss Melville,” said Brandon.  “I hope that you and your sister do not despise us poor colonial people.”

“Certainly not,” said Jane; “indeed, Francis says that he got most of his best ideas from Mr. Sinclair, who had been in Canada and the United States, and from a conversation between you and Mr. Phillips and Mr. Dempster the first day he dined with us in London.  He says nothing sharpens an Englishman up like intercourse with such pushing, energetic, straightforward people as colonists.”