“Oh, Mr. Brandon!” said Elsie, who had recovered her powers of speech; “she was doing needlework at Mrs. Phillips’s, and I was sent out on an errand, and she would come with me.”

“And we was just a looking over the bill, and seeing as our money was all right,” said Mrs. Peck, in the most plausible manner.

“No; it was not a bill,” said Elsie, who hated the idea of this woman telling lies for her.

“Did Mrs. Phillips actually send you out walking with this person?” said Brandon, with a look of the most intense contempt and disgust at Mrs. Peck.

“She said nothing against it; but she did not send me; it was all my own fault,” said Elsie, weeping bitterly.  “I rather wished to go with her.”

“My dear Miss Alice, you must have seen that this was no fit person for you to associate with.  You are an innocent girl, ignorant of the world, as all girls ought to be; but you are not so easily deceived in character as not to see in this woman’s face, language, and manners, that she is to be avoided as you would avoid death and destruction,” said Brandon.

Elsie only wept more bitterly than before.  Brandon must despise her for ever now.  She had been glad to come out to Victoria, because she thought if he still loved or cared for her she should hear of it.  She had treasured his parting words and his parting looks in her heart; and now to meet him again in this way—­to feel that he must look down on her as in the old days of his pity he never could have done—­was dreadful.  How was he to guess at the almost irresistible temptation that had led her to compromise herself so far?

“You had better go home now to your own dwelling, Mrs. Peck,” said Brandon; “for if Mr. Phillips were to know that you had been visiting his wife in his absence you would come by the worst of it.  Needlework, indeed!  Mrs. Phillips is a fool, certainly; but the idea of your doing needlework for her is very absurd.  So you had better never show face there again.”

“Perhaps you’d like to know where I live, Miss Melville,” said Mrs. Peck, glaring angrily at Brandon.  “I lodge at No.—­, Little Bourke Street, and can be heard of there, either as Mrs. Mahoney or Mrs. Peck.  You can come there to see me.”

“Like to know where you live—­go to see you!” said Brandon, in towering indignation.  “Now Miss Melville knows your real character she will keep away from you for ever.  So now go off with you, as quickly as you can.”

“Good-bye, Miss Melville,” said Mrs. Peck, as she slowly went on her way to her own lodgings.  She found she must go, but she would not be hurried by Brandon’s wrath.

He waited till she was out of hearing before he tried to soothe the feelings of the agitated girl she had left under his care.

“Now where can I take you to?  If Mrs. Phillips allowed you to do such a thing as walk through Melbourne with Mrs. Peck, she is not to be trusted with you.  Oh, if Peggy were only here—­but she is not:  your sister told me she had not left Edinburgh.”