lf! It is a hundred chances to one against two
heiresses getting two such good husbands, and keeping all such capital
friends as we do."

"It is quite true," said Jane; "my uncle's will has resulted in more
happiness than even he could have hoped for."

"Though he certainly would not have contemplated with equanimity the
passing of Cross Hall into the hands of Mrs. William Dalzell, whose
trustees invested her fortune in it when it was sold by the benevolent
societies to whom I relinquished the inheritance," said Francis.
"Dalzell does not make so bad a landlord as we expected, particularly
as he has not much in his power. The proceeds of the sale are doing
good to the sick and afflicted, while we are quite as comfortable
without it."

"I cannot think enough of the Providence that has made good come out of
evil," said Jane. "But with regard to the rappings, Mr. Dempster, the
oracular sentences that all would be well in the end, and that Francis
should be happy after a time, were of the vaguest description, while on
positive matters they were decidedly misinformed."

"It might have been a lying or mocking spirit," said Mr. Dempster; "my
faith in the truth of these manifestations is not to be shaken by what
you say."

"I wonder if your spirits could tell us if Grant is in for ----, and
his majority? The election must have taken place, but no one in the
room knows of it; that would be a crucial test, as Jane calls it," said
Brandon.

"In such a company of unbelievers," said Mr. Dempster, "we could not
get up a seance, and what is more, we have no medium."

"It is well that Grant goes out of his own district," said Brandon,
"for he would not stand a chance there; and now he is promising to
those strangers anything and everything. With all Grant's aristocratic
feelings, and his wife's too, which are still stronger, their desire
that he should have a seat in the Assembly, now that McIntyre is in,
seems to drag him into as low depths as any one. I cannot see why they
should be so anxious about it, unless it is that, since they cannot
afford to go home, they want to take as good a position here as any of
their neighbours. Grant's affairs will suffer if he has to be so much
in Melbourne, and at best he will make a very fourth-rate legislator."

"I think he is naturally 'indifferent honest,'" said Francis. "At
least, he is disposed to be honest, but canvassing is very different
work here as well as in Britain."

"You s