y such scenes as she
had just gone through, and she saw that there was great wisdom and
propriety in her leaving the country that he lived in. From her distant
home across the ocean, she could hear of his labours and his triumphs,
and, she hoped, after a time, of his happiness. But while she reasoned
with herself as to the propriety of leaving him, she felt all the
bitterness of the lifelong separation. She could no longer disguise the
truth from herself--he was as truly half of her as she was of him--and
she shivered at the thought of a life to be gone through in which she
should never more see his face, or hear his voice. It was as sad a
night, and as sleepless, as that she had spent in her cousin's house in
Edinburgh, when all doors had seemed to be shut against her, except the
faint chance of a sub-matronship in a lunatic asylum. Now, two doors
were open to her--one to a life of toil and dependence for herself and
probably a happy life for Elsie, at the antipodes; and the other, a
life of love with the man who had all her heart, and who deserved it
all, with a dependent life for Elsie. Even though her own hand had
closed the door, she could not help lingering at the threshold, and
grieving that she was shut out from the only paradise she cared for.

So the good ship sailed next week, bearing Jane from the man who loved
her, and whom she loved, and Elsie and Miss Harriett Phillips towards
the man whom they both thought loved them.

Volume III.

Chapter I.

Mr. Brandon's Second Proposal To Elsie, And Its Fate

On Mr. Brandon's arrival at Melbourne after a longer voyage than he had
expected in a ship with such a high character as the one he sailed in,
he hurried up to Barragong, and was much gratified to find things there
did not look so badly as he had been led to expect. It was his
overseer's want of confidence in himself that had made him exaggerate
everything that was going wrong, or was likely to go wrong. In fact Mr.
Phillips's affairs were suffering much more from the want of the
master's eye than his; but Dr. Grant had a better opinion of his own
management, and wrote more cheerful accounts. Brandon regretted that
Powell had left his employment, for if he had been in charge of
Barragong there might have been three more happy months in England for
his master.

As his affairs were really in a sufficiently satisfactory state, he
felt that he must write to Elsie Melville, renewing his offer o