sively dressed, and there were public
amusements such as were never heard of in the early colonial days.

But still there was much even in Melbourne that was un-English and
strange to a new comer.

Melbourne did not at all come up to Harriett's expectations, though
what she had expected it would have been difficult to tell. She had
wished to go to Victoria because it would be a novelty to her--it would
be so different from England that it would be amusing--but every
difference that she observed, and she was very quick in observing such
things, was always for the worse. There was, of course, the difference
of climate, which led to many alterations in dress and manner of
living, and which would reasonably lead to more if the English colonist
was not so much wedded to old customs and costumes. The heat and dust
Harriett found to be insupportable, and the dress which was most suited
to it was so unbecoming, particularly the gentlemen's dress, with the
endless variety of hats for head-covering. Dr. Grant, who stood a good
deal on the dignity of his profession, when in Melbourne wore dark
clothes and a black hat even in the heat of summer, and that weighed in
his favour with Harriett. The noise and bustle of Melbourne was so
different from what she had been accustomed to in Derbyshire--indeed it
was more like Liverpool than any part of London she had seen--a poor
edition of Liverpool; and that was the city of which the Victorians
were so proud. She could not enter into the natural liking of a people
for a town that they have seen with their own eyes grow from a mere
hamlet of rude huts to a handsome, paved, lighted, commercial city like
Melbourne--who identify themselves with its progress, having watched
the growth of every improvement. They wonder that it does not strike
strangers as being as astonishing as it appears to be to themselves.

Mrs. Phillips had no acquaintances in Melbourne; but Mr. Phillips and
Dr. Grant knew a good many people, who were disposed to be very
friendly to Harriett, but she did not feel very grateful for such
kindness. She fancied that her position and education, and her being
recently out from England ought to give her an overpowering prestige in
these half-savage lands, and though she lost no chance of laughing or
censuring anything which she thought colonial, she could not bear being
talked of as a new chum, whose opinions should be kept for two years at
least before they were worth anything,