Phillips had been persuaded for once to allow
her sister-in-law to outshine her, at least so far as she could do so.
Jane was as busy in the kitchen as any one; when she was called away by
Miss Phillips, to be consulted as to how her veil should be disposed
of, for Mrs. Phillips had declined to give an opinion--and there were
two modes of arranging it that she was doubtful about. Could not Miss
Melville settle that knotty point?

"I really cannot say; one seems to me to look as well as the other,"
said Jane.

"That is very unsatisfactory," said Harriett. "I know they are not
equally becoming."

"Elsie will be here this evening," said Jane, "or early to-morrow
morning; and I am sure she will be most happy to give the last touches
to your dress. Her taste is good, and you know how wretched mine is."

"Well, I suppose I must trust to that; but I should prefer to have
everything settled to-day, so that my mind might be quite easy. I
should not like to look flurried to-morrow. I must ask Dr. Grant when
he comes in. Perhaps he will give me an idea. Your sister's dress was
very simple, she told me; but then the affair was so hurried--there was
no time to make preparations. We have not that excuse, thanks to those
tiresome tradespeople. But Alice and Brandon seem to get on pretty
comfortably."

"Very happily, I think," said Jane.

"Oh, yes, he is good-natured enough, and I dare say, very kind to her,
and she seems quite satisfied. But I have been just thinking how
difficult it would have been for me to have been suited in such a
colony as this if I had not been so fortunate as to meet with Dr.
Grant. Being a professional man, he is necessarily an educated man, and
you know how much that weighs with me; and he has the manners of a
gentleman, which are also indispensable to my happiness in marriage.
None of your rough, boorish bushmen, who can only talk of sheep and
cattle, could possibly have done for me. Then, his family connections
are most unexceptionable; my own relations cannot feel in any way
compromised by such an alliance. The near neighbourhood (as I suppose
it must be called) to Wiriwilta, and even to Barragong, makes it very
pleasant. I should not have at all liked marrying to be at distance
from my brother and his family. Coming out, as I did, on their account
principally, it would be dreadful for all of us if we were separated. I
am sure I am quite pleased, too, to have your sister and Brandon as
neighbours