ng to a man who was not exactly poor, but always more or less
embarrassed. Her perfect self-possession, her good education, her
musical talents, her excellent connections, her stylish way of
dressing, her very egotism, were all charming to a man who wanted a
wife who would do him credit.

His Scotch family was a good one; he was connected with many noble
houses; he could tell long traditional stories of the feats of the
Grants and the Gillespies, his father's and mother's ancestors; and it
was wonderful how much the history of Scotland, and indeed that of the
world generally, seemed to hang on the exploits of those ancient clans.
Though Harriett was not a Scotchwoman (it was the only drawback to
their perfect suitability), she appreciated these anecdotes wonderfully
well. Dr. Grant laid himself out to please her in a much more marked
manner than Brandon had ever done, and his success was much greater. He
had a subdued feeling that his neighbour at Barragong was his rival, as
he had seen so much of Harriett in England, so he lost no opportunity
of mentioning anything that would tell against him.

Then he was of the same profession as her father and brother Vivian,
and liked to hear her talk of them. Indeed, provided he got time and
opportunity to speak about his own relations, connections, and
friends--to give anecdotes of his schoolboy and college days, more
interesting to his mother than to any one else heretofore--to describe
how he had felt the colonial hardships at first, and how he had
gradually made himself very comfortable at Ben More (which was the name
he had given to his station, so much more suitable for a Scottish
squatter than such native names as Brandon and Phillips had retained
for theirs);--he would allow Harriett to give her school and society
reminiscences too, to describe her home in Derbyshire--the furniture,
the ornaments, the lawn, and the greenhouse--the county Stanleys, and
the county balls. As they were generally TETE-A-TETE four or five hours
a day, they had ample time for descanting on all these interesting
topics. Any visitors who might drop in, or any visit that they might
pay together only gave fresh food for further comparison of their own
personal tastes and predilections. Miss Phillips's avowed contemptuous
compassion for everything colonial did not at all offend Dr. Grant. He
had never been thoroughly acclimatized himself, and he had vowed never
to marry any of the second-rate colonia