r. Phillips having ascertained
that Mrs. Peck was in Adelaide, and having, through Mr. Talbot, sent a
request that she should remain there, which her own interest was likely
to make her attend to, had less objection to her staying in Melbourne
than he ever had before; so he took a suite of furnished apartments for
her and those of the family who remained in town.

Jane Melville went at once to Wiriwilta with the children, who all
longed to be there, and who disliked Melbourne more than London. Miss
Phillips had her choice to remain in town or to go up to the station,
and she decided on the former alternative, for she began to fear the
station would be very dull, and would contrast unfavourably with the
voyage, which had been lively and pleasant. There were some of her
fellow-passengers whom she was unwilling to lose sight of; and Mr.
Brandon was not at Barragong, but in Adelaide, so, on the whole, she
thought it would be preferable to stay. She gave as her ostensible
reason for the choice, her wish to be with Mrs. Phillips during her
brother's necessary absence. Mr. Phillips stayed with his wife till she
presented him with a second son, and then, as she was doing very well,
he left her in the care of his sister and Elsie.

He had been rather annoyed to find that Brandon had been amusing
himself by taking a journey to Adelaide so soon after coming out to the
colony again. Dr. Grant came down to meet Phillips, and represented
that a great deal had gone amiss at Wiriwilta since he (Dr. Grant) had
been supplanted in the charge of the stations; so that he thought it
indispensable to go up with the least possible delay to look to all the
flocks and the out-stations.

"It was the wildest thing in Brandon to start off in that way," said
Grant, "with a poor lad of a nephew who did not know a wattle from a
gum-tree when he came, and scarcely a sheep from a cow. I never would
have done such a thing."

"But he has gone to buy some new sheep, I hear," said Phillips. "Have
they been delivered at Wiriwilta?"

"No, not yet," said Grant; "and I think that was the most insane part
of the business. I am sure our Victorian flock-masters have always kept
ahead of the Adelaide lot; and to go to the Adelaide side for sheep
would be the last speculation I should care to enter into for myself,
not to speak of implicating you in such a thing. The long overland
journey will pull them down so much that you are likely to lose a third
of them