an she did now. The armed
neutrality which she maintained with her sister-in-law had amused
Brandon at first, but now it appeared to him to be unladylike and
ungraceful to accept of hospitality in her brother's house without any
gratitude or any forbearance. He began to question the reality of her
very great superiority over Mrs. Phillips; with all her advantages of
education and society she ought to have shown more gentleness and
affection both to her brother's wife and his children. He analysed, as
he had never done before, her expressions, and weighed her opinions,
and found they generally had more sound than sense; and her habitual
assumption that she knew everything much better than other people,
became tiresome when he did not believe in her superiority.

He began, too, to contrast the charm of a face, when the colour went
and came with every emotion, with that of one so unimpressible as
Harriett Phillips's--whose self-possession was nearly as different from
that of Jane Melville as it was from the timidity and diffidence of
Elsie. Jane's calmness was the result of a strong will mastering the
strong emotions which she really felt, and not in the absence of any
powerful feeling or emotion whatever. Brandon had learned to like Jane
better as he knew more of her, and rather enjoyed being preached to by
one who could practise as well as preach. He felt that if she was
superior to him she did not look down on him; and she certainly had the
power of making him speak well, and of bringing out the very large
amount of real useful practical knowledge that he had acquired in his
Australian life. Her eagerness to hear everything about Australia and
Australians certainly was in pleasing contrast to Miss Phillips's
distaste for all things and people colonial; but above all, Miss
Phillips's want of consideration for Alice Melville had weaned Mr.
Brandon's heart from her. It was not merely unladylike; it was
unwomanly. He could not love a wife who had so little sympathy and so
little generosity.

Chapter X.

A Seance

Francis Hogarth did not forget his promise to Mr. Dempster, and went to
his house at the hour appointed, to be witness of the seance. A number
of his friends and fellow-converts were there, and the proceedings of
the evening were opened by a short and earnest prayer that none but
good spirits should be permitted to be present, and that all the
communications they might be permitted to hear might be ble