in Italy,
and promised to himself that next time he took the journey they should
accompany him.

When they returned to London they found that all had gone well in their
absence--Francis had won his election; Jane appeared to be in excellent
spirits; and the children had made good progress with their lessons.
Mr. Phillips appeared to miss his old friend and neighbour, Brandon,
very much, and could not find any one of his colonial acquaintances who
could fill up the blank which his departure from London had made.
Besides, they were always losing somebody out of their pleasant circle.
Every mail steamer, and every fine clipper ship that sailed for
Australia seemed to take one or more from them; and though new people
did come, they did not appear to be so agreeable as those who went
away. Mr. Phillips could not remain contented in London, so he proposed
a trip to America with his wife and Alice as before; but Mrs. Phillips
disliked the sea, and did not feel very well, so she said she would
rather stay in London with the family, though it was getting rather
late in the season for London. She did not care to go to Derbyshire
without him, far less to go to Scotland; so, if he could be so cruel as
to leave her, she would prefer London. If Emily had been a little
older, Mr. Phillips would have taken her with him, for he disliked
travelling alone, but she was too young, as he himself acknowledged.

Elsie could not understand the cause of Mrs. Phillips's peculiarly
disagreeable conduct to herself lately, and she was almost on the point
of leaving her, and taking another situation, when the children, one
after the other, took scarlatina, and in such a house of sickness
she--their favourite--could not be spared. All lessons, of course, were
at an end. Mrs. Phillips looked into the nursery several times a day,
and said how sorry she was to see the children so ill, and how she
suffered from her anxiety about them; but it was Jane and Elsie who
took the real charge of the little patients. The mother did not seem
really alarmed, though the children were really very ill; the only
thing she did that appeared like apprehension was making Jane write to
Mr. Phillips to return to England without delay as soon as the children
were seized with the fever. Jane also wrote to Dr. Phillips, and Vivian
hurried to London, and stayed with his brother's family until his
return, which was a great lightening of the load of responsibility
which the sist