Jane's Situation
In an almost incredibly short time, Mr. Brandon called at Peggy
Walker's to say that he had had a letter from Mr. Phillips, who thought
very favourably of Miss Melville from his description, but who would
come to Edinburgh himself in a day or two and see the young lady, so as
to judge for himself.
He came accordingly, but, to Peggy's great disappointment, without
Emily or Harriett. They had both bad colds, and he could not make them
travel in the depth of winter even to see Peggy. Jane and Elsie could
not but admire the kindly greeting to gave to his old and faithful
servant, and the interest he took in her affairs and her children,
which was even more strongly expressed than Mr. Brandon's; and as for
grandfather, he could not tell which of the two Australian gentlemen
was the most polite.
The manners of the younger sister took Mr. Phillips's fancy more than
those of the elder, but he saw that Jane would suit him best; so, in a
much shorter time than she could have conceived possible, she found
herself engaged to accompany him on his return to London, as
housekeeper and governess, at a salary of 70 pounds a year.
"We mean to come to Edinburgh next summer, when we will probably take a
tour in the Highlands, so that you have a prospect of seeing your
sister then," said Mr. Phillips: "but I must have you with us as soon
as possible, so I hope you will be ready the day after to-morrow."
"Yes, I will be quite ready then," said Jane. "I have not much to do,
except to part from Elsie, and that will be hard to do at last as at
first."
While Mr. Phillips talked to Peggy about his children, and especially
of Emily, the girls both examined his countenance and drew their
conclusions as to his character. He was not so handsome as Mr. Brandon,
being smaller and more insignificant-looking, and his fair complexion
had not stood so well the constant exposure to the weather under an
Australian sun as Mr. Brandon's dark one, but his smile was remarkably
bright, and though his manner was very gentle and pleasing, he did not
seem to want for decision of character.
"I doubt Emily is changed out of my knowledge. I have not seen her
since she was four years and a half old, when you brought her to
Melbourne for me to see, and when she coaxed me out of far more lollies
than were good for her."
"I will bring her up in summer, and you will acknowledge that you would
know her anywhere. As for you, she will know you quite well, for did
not we get your likeness taken at the time, and she shows it to every
one as that of her dear old nurse."
"I hope you're no spoiling the bairn."
"Oh! no, not much--at least, if we are, we will get Miss Melville to
counteract our bad treatment."
"You're no to make Miss Melville a terror--that's no fair. But the wee
things after Harriett, how do you call them?"
"Constance, Hubert, and Eva."
"Well, they should save the eldest from being destroyed by foolish
indulgence, for Emily and Harriett should be learned to give way to
them."
"Everybody gives way to all of the five--but you must not say they are
spoiled, either. Harriett and Emily, too, learned a lot of monkey
tricks on board ship. The gentlemen took so much notice of them, and
encouraged a good deal of impertinence in the children."
"A ship is a bad school for bairns," said Peggy. "Mine will be come
some length before we go on board, and are not like to be so much taken
notice of. Does Mrs. Phillips like England?"
"Very much, indeed. She will not go back with her own goodwill, and I
hope not to need to return."
"All your friends are in this country," said Peggy, "and Mrs. Phillips
will have so much new to see here that she will not regret the station.
And how's Mrs. Bennett, is she still with you, and Martha, Mrs. Tuck
they call her now?"
"They are both on the station yet, Peggy; Mrs. Bennett the same
admirable woman she used to be, but one cannot advance her any way with
such a poor creature of a husband. There is no rise in him; he is a
shepherd, and a shepherd he will remain to the end of his days,
spending his wages in an occasional spree, and then coming back to us
to work for more; while that poor silly Martha happened on one of the
best men about the place, and I have left him an under-overseer. If the
two men could only have exchanged wives, things would appear more
equitably arranged."
"Well," said Peggy, when Mr. Phillips had gone, "people can see other
folks' blunders, but the man that I thought worst mated on the station
was the master himself. You'll have to take high ground with Mrs.
Phillips, Miss Melville, for if you give her an inch she will take an
ell. As for him, he is everything that is reasonable; and the bairns,
you must just make them mind you. But she is the one that will give you
the most trouble."
When this engagement was entered into Jane accompanied Elsie to Mrs.
Dunn's, who readily took her into her work-room, and was very much
pleased to hear that Miss Melville had got such a desirable situation.
The Rennies were also full of congratulations, and felt that their
invitations and their getting the sisters an introduction to Mr.
Brandon, had secured such a magnificent salary from another Australian
millionaire. Miss Rennie was particularly pleased that she had dwelt so
much on the misfortunes and talents of the sisters. The last evening
Jane spent in Edinburgh was passed at the Rennies'; Mr. Brandon was
asked to meet the girls he had been of such service to, and though Mr.
Hogarth was rather dull, and Laura Wilson in a particularly unamiable
mood, the liveliness of the Australian settler made it pass off very
pleasantly.
Jane had not only Mr. Phillips, but Mr. Brandon also as travelling
companion. Australians in England have a great tendency to fraternise,
even though they were not much acquainted in the colony, and when his
old neighbour returned to London, Brandon thought he could not do
better than go with him, and go back to the north when it was not quite
so cold. The gentlemen had a great deal to say to each other on matters
both colonial and English. In English politics they took quite as great
an interest as if they had never been out of Britain, and in
Continental politics they took a greater interest than is usual with
English people. Jane was occupied with her own thoughts. The parting
from Elsie had been a sad one, so had the good-bye to Francis, who had
said so much about her writing if she was unhappy, or if she did not
think she could keep her situation with a lady of such a peculiar
temper as Mrs. Phillips, that she could not help fearing herself for
the permanency of the situation.
Nothing that had fallen from Peggy, or from Mr. Brandon either, had
prepared Jane for the exceeding beauty of Mrs. Phillips. Jane never had
seen a woman so strikingly handsome before. When she spoke the charm
was somewhat broken, for her ideas were not brilliant, and she
expressed herself in indifferent English; but in repose she was like a
queen of romance. Tall and large, but exquisitely formed, with a soft
creamy complexion, with a slight faint rose colour on the cheeks, and a
more vivid red on the pouting lips, finely-shaped brown eyes, and a
profusion of rippling dark brown hair, she certainly offered the
fairest possible excuse for her husband's marrying beneath his
rank--both social and intellectual. Such beauty as Mrs. Phillips's is a
power, and Jane felt how difficult it would be to take high ground with
so exquisite a creature. As Mr. Brandon said, she was handsomer than
ever; the girlish beauty of sixteen, which she possessed when she
captivated Mr. Phillips, had matured into the perfect beauty of
womanhood. Though the mother of five children, she was not, and
certainly did not look, twenty-seven. Emily was not so regularly
handsome as her mother, but had more animation and more play of
feature. Harriett would have been considered a pretty child in any
other family, but she was quite a plain one in this.
No sooner had Mr. Phillips entered his house than Emily clung round his
neck; Harriett mounted on one knee and played with his hair; Constance
got on the other to have a little similar amusement with his beard and
whiskers; Hubert clamoured for a ride on papa's foot; and little Eva
cried to leave her nurse's arms to be taken up by him too.
"I was very glad to hear from Mr. Phillips, that you was coming, Miss
Melville; the trouble of the house and the row of the children make it
far too much for me, and when one comes home to England for a holiday,
they want to have some peace,' said Mrs. Phillips. 'Now, Miss Emily,
you must be on your good behaviour, now Miss Melville's come to be your
governess."
"I'm sure I shan't behave any better to her than to my own dear papa,"
said Emily, with a storm of kisses.
"You're getting up to be a great girl. I'm sure Miss Melville will be
quite shocked at your backwardness."
"She is a bush child," said Mr. Brandon, "and has been running wild all
her life; you must excuse her for the present, but we hope to see great
improvement."
"I am much afraid you will be disappointed, you dear old boy," said
Emily, who had left her father and come up to Mr. Brandon, who was her
particular favourite. "Keep your spirits up as well as you can; I am
not going to be like your wonderful nephews and nieces at Ashfield. I
never saw such ignorant children; they did not know how to make dirt
pies, nor could they jump across the ditch, or get up by the trees to
the top of the garden wall. Harriett and I had such a beautiful race
round that garden, and they looked on so terrified."
"They could take the shine out of you at lessons, however," said Mr.
Brandon, "and I won't take you there again to have another such
spirited race till I hear satisfactory accounts of you from Miss
Melville."
"Oh! the race was well enough, but the visit was very slow upon the
whole, so I don't think I will break my heart if I never see the place
again. Harriett may try to deserve it, but I will not take the trouble."
"I hate books," said Miss Harriett, "except picture books, and the
fairy tales papa reads to us."
"You must not mind what they say, Miss Melville," said Mr. Phillips.
"I do not intend to do so. I hope to make them like their lessons by
and by, and in the meantime they must learn them whether they like them
or not."
"You would be astonished, Lily," said Mr. Phillips, addressing his
wife, "to see what a clever, intelligent family of nephews and nieces
Peggy has got. Miss Melville has been good enough to give them some
extra instruction, and they certainly have profited by it; but even
without that, Peggy has given them every advantage that she possibly
could."
"Oh! Peggy had always very uppish notions," said Mrs. Phillips, "it
will be a pity if she educates these children above their position."
"No one knows what position they may not take with such abilities and
education in such a colony as Victoria. I may have to stand cap in hand
to Tom Lowrie yet," said Mr. Phillips.
"You, Stanley!" said his wife; "you are so fond of saying absurd
things."
"Don't you know the insecurity of runs? And who knows but Tom may be
Prime Minister or Commissioner of Public Lands or Public Works, or the
chief engineer on a new railway, that may go right through my squatting
rights? My dear Lily, I have a respect for incipient greatness, and
when I stood among these young people, I felt they would be rising when
I was perhaps falling."
"Were these your motives?" said Mr. Brandon, laughing. "I admired the
young Lowries for what they were in themselves, and did not go so far
into the future as you. I hope, Emily, that in time, Miss Melville will
make you what Peggy calls keen of your learning, as well as her bairns."
"Did you like learning when you were a little girl?" asked Emily of
Miss Melville.
"Very much, indeed."
"So mamma says, but then she did not have to learn very much. If I had
not such a horrid lot of tasks, perhaps I might like some of them."
"But, my dear, you are so very ignorant, you have everything to learn
now that you have come to England," said her mamma.
"But I hope not everything at once," said Jane.
"Not quite," said Mr. Phillips; "but perhaps too much so. You will see
the list of the girls' studies to-morrow, and judge for yourself."
Mrs. Phillips was favourably impressed with Jane. She was well born and
well educated, but she was plain looking. She had heard of her sudden
and sad reverse of fortune, and felt disposed to take her up and
patronise her. She had suffered from the want of a domestic manager and
house counsellor; even the very good temper and great forbearance of
her husband had given way at the small amount of comfort that could be
obtained with such a lavish expenditure of money as his had been since
they came to London; and he had spoken more sharply to her about her
mismanagement than about anything else, so she felt that now he had a
housekeeper of his own choosing, she should escape from all
responsibility. Her manner to Jane was exceedingly kind, and Jane's
hopes rose at her reception.
Mrs. Phillips always went to bed early, unless she was kept up by
amusement and gaiety; her style of beauty was of the kind that suits
best with plenty of sleep and few cares--so at ten o'clock she said she
could sit up no longer, and left Mr. Phillips to explain all the duties
expected of Miss Melville, so that she need not be disturbed by any
inquiries in the morning.
Mr. Phillips did so with a clearness and precision that showed he had
been often obliged to see to the disbursement of the money as well as
the earning if it. He gave Jane the keys and the house-books, showed
her what he thought was the sum he could spend on family expenses, and
hoped that she would make it suffice.
"I wish you to be one of the family, Miss Melville; to visit and go to
public places with Mrs. Phillips. I think we may dispense with all the
masters for my little girls, except for music, and I hope that you will
succeed in making them like both you and their lessons. I also hope, in
a short time, to give you still more difficult and delicate work to do,
and if you can be successful there, I will be most grateful to you.
Mrs. Phillips has had a very imperfect education; she was born in the
colonies, and was married when a mere child, and since her marriage she
has had few opportunities of improving herself either by books or
society. I think she feels her deficiencies; so if you could ingratiate
yourself with her--she appears to be most favourably disposed towards
you at first sight--and induce her to learn a little from you, you
would add very greatly to our happiness and comfort, and I should be
infinitely your debtor."
Mr. Phillips hesitated, and coloured a little while he made this
suggestion. Jane said she would do what she could, and would be most
happy to further his views in this and in every other way; but she felt
not a little fearful at the idea of having to ingratiate herself with
the woman she had been exhorted to take high ground with, and to teach,
probably in the most elementary branches, the most lovely creature she
had ever seen, the mistress of the house, and a person several years
her senior. Still, no difficulty--no honour. She had wanted full
employment, and here she was likely to get it.
Jane did not think she had naturally any great turn for children, but
the little Phillipses had been so accustomed to have people pet and
yield to them that they actually seemed to enjoy the repose and
happiness of obeying, and obeying at once, their calm, grave governess,
who never asked them to do anything unreasonable, but yet who always
insisted on implicit acquiescence. They were indebted to her tor the
shortening and simplifying of all their lessons in the first place, and
that called out a considerable amount of gratitude. She had a clear way
of explaining things to them, and she had such a large information on
all subjects that she filled out the dry skeletons of geography and
history which children are condemned to learn, and made them look
living and real to them. Their father had taught the two elder girls to
read, and to read well and fluently; but they had had no other lessons
till they had come to London, and found their hitherto unexercised
memories quite overtaxed by masters, who saw that the girls were quick,
intelligent, and observant, with a great deal of practical knowledge
quite unusual in England at their years, but absolutely devoid of all
school acquirements. They found their lessons much more interesting to
learn and much better retained when learned under Miss Melville than
under their masters; and though they were not particularly fond of her,
they were very happy with her.
Mrs. Phillips's only objection to Miss Melville was her Scotch accent;
but, before six weeks had passed she had got over that, and thought
being in London had softened it down very considerably, and she did not
think the children were at all inclined to pick it up. She began to
wonder if the governess would not give her some help or some hints, for
she was going to visit her husband's relations in Derbyshire for a
second time--her first visit had not been very long--and she hoped and
wished that she might get on better than she had done before. Her
husband had never found any fault with her in the bush of Australia;
but her blunders before his father, brother, and sisters had distressed
him so much that he had spoken to her many times rather sharply in
private about them. Though she was a woman of a very indolent
character, now that Jane managed all her housekeeping and her servants,
wrote all her notes--that, however, was a saving of time to her husband
rather than to herself--and relieved her a good deal from the worry of
the children, she felt that she had some time on her hands, in spite of
her going out a good deal to see and to be seen. She was no reader, and
had no taste for needlework; but she had the gift of being able to sit
in an easy chair thinking of nothing in particular, and doing nothing
at all, but looking so beautiful that one might have fancied her
thoughts to be of the most elevated description.
One day, while in this state of luxurious ease, she asked Jane how long
she had been at school, and opened her eyes a hair-breadth or two wider
when she was told of the education so peculiar, so protracted, that Mr.
Hogarth had given to his nieces, and that even after she had left off
regular study, Jane had never ceased to be learning something. Even now
she was keeping up, partly for Tom Lowrie's sake, and partly for her
own gratification, some of those branches of learning that were likely
to be useful to him, and corresponding with him every week on those
subjects.
Mrs. Phillips sighed, and said she had been married at sixteen, and had
been very little at school all her life. She had always been moved from
place to place when she was a girl, and there were no schools in the
colony that were fit to teach young ladies then. Even now, it was the
children's education that had been Mr. Phillips's great inducement to
come to England, and she liked it very much herself, there was so much
to see in London. But would Miss Melville think it very absurd if she
were to propose to take lessons now? Jane said she would not think it
at all absurd; she was sure Mrs. Phillips would find it very pleasant.
But she was rather perplexed when the lady said that her chief ambition
was to learn the pianoforte and how to make wax flowers. She had no
particular taste for music, and no artistic taste at all; but music and
wax flowers were expensive, fashionable, and showy accomplishments, and
these Mrs. Phillips desired to acquire.
"These are things, unfortunately, that I cannot give you any assistance
with," said Jane, recovering her presence of mind, "and perhaps you
would not like to have masters and mistresses coming in for yourself.
Any other branch of study we could go on with together, and that would
be pleasanter. Music demands so very much time if you wish to make
rapid progress."
"Emily only practises an hour and Harriett half an hour a day now, and
though their master wished them to practise twice as long, they seem to
get on much better since you said they should not be so long at the
piano."
"Because it is practising, not amusing themselves or dawdling, and
because it is an hour and half an hour, neither more nor less, and not
an uncertain time, which is left to the performer's pleasure. To make
any progress with music after you are grown up, you must give three or
four hours a day to its acquirement, and that you would find it
difficult--almost impossible--to keep up. But, as I said before, music
is a thing I am so ignorant of that I can give you no assistance and no
advice on the subject."
"I would like your assistance," said Mrs. Phillips, "for the children
do get on with you, and they say that you make their lessons an
amusement."
"Should you not like to be with us while we are at study, and see if
you think you could derive any benefit from my method? Come into the
schoolroom to-morrow with us?"
Mrs. Phillips agreed to this, and thought the lessons were very
pleasant. Sometimes Jane made the little girls repeat their lessons to
their mamma, still exercising the supervision which made them feel they
must be as careful as heretofore. The oral instruction which
accompanied the lessons studied from the book, seemed to Mrs. Phillips
as well as to the children, the most interesting part of it, and as the
language was simplified for the comprehension of the little pupils, it
was not at all too abstract for their mother. She declared herself
delighted with the morning at school, and tried to persuade herself
that she was only going there to see how her governess did her duty by
her children. In this way, by sitting two hours every forenoon with
Miss Melville, she contrived to pick up something, and though both her
husband and Jane would have been glad if the studies had been
prosecuted a little further, they were very much pleased with so much
improvement.
The idea of learning music still haunted Mrs. Phillips, and she
obtained her husband's consent to her having lessons from Emily's
master; but her progress was so slow that she tired of it in a month,
and blamed her teacher for his stupid dry way of setting her to work.
If Miss Melville had only understood music, she knew she would have got
on ever so much better, for she had such a knack of teaching people. On
the whole, Jane was satisfied with her situation, and with the manner
in which she filled it, and when Mr. Phillips paid her her first
quarter's salary, he expressed himself in the highest degree satisfied
with everything she had done. If she could only have felt that Elsie
was well and happy, she would have been perfectly happy herself, but
the letters from Edinburgh were not at all cheerful. Elsie's account of
herself, and Francis's accounts of her, were unsatisfactory, and even
Peggy had written a few lines recently to say that she was uneasy about
her, and did not think the situation at Mrs. Dunn's agreed with Miss
Elsie at all.
It was still months before she could hope to go to Edinburgh to see her
sister; but she wrote, urging her to give up her employment, and to
take as much open-air exercise as possible, and also to take medical
advice on the subject; but Elsie did not agree to this. The family
plans were all laid for a visit to Derbyshire, and Mr. Brandon, who
seemed always to be on the move, when his old neighbours were leaving
London, seeing Jane's distress about her sister, ventured on a
good-natured suggestion in her behalf.
"I think you might go up now and see Peggy before you go to Derbyshire;
you know she is anxious to see Emily and the other children. I could go
with you. I wish so much to see the meeting between them."
"We cannot go to Scotland so early in the season. Autumn is the time
when it is pleasant to travel in the north."
"But then I cannot be a witness to Peggy's delight, for if you delay so
long I will have to be off to Melbourne before that time. I thought if
you went now you might leave Miss Melville with her sister while you
pay your visit. You do not mean to take her there, and the servants
here will, I suppose, be put on board wages during your absence, so
that she need not remain in London."
"We hope and expect that Miss Melville will accompany us to Derbyshire,
that the children may go on with their lessons, and not get into as
much mischief as they did on their last visit," said Mr. Phillips.
"I am sure their aunts made great complaints of them," said Mrs.
Phillips, "and I do not wish to give room for so much complaint again.
I hope Miss Melville will come with us."
"I would have escorted Miss Melville to Edinburgh before I went to
Ashfield, for I must see that worthy Peggy again before I leave
England, and visit my Edinburgh relatives again, too, and my time is
getting short," said Mr. Brandon; "but if you cannot spare her, I
cannot do anything but go to see her sister, and report myself on her
appearance; perhaps your letters are duller than the reality."
"Did you not tell me your sister was a milliner, Miss Melville? What a
sad thing. I am sure you are such a treasure to us that I wish some
other family would take your sister," said Mrs. Phillips.
"She thinks millinery preferable to idleness; but the long hours, and
the cold rooms, and the solitary life are too hard upon her."
"It must be dull for her to have no other society but that of our good
Peggy and her bairns after a long day's work. Don't you think, Lily,
that it would be a pleasant change for her to come and spend a few
weeks with us after we return to London, as her sister cannot yet go to
her?" said Mr. Phillips.
The idea of befriending Jane's sister in this way was not disagreeable
to Mrs. Phillips. The invitation was given, and joyfully accepted. Mr.
Brandon would delay his visit to the north till it was about the time
for Elsie to come down, and would take care of her on the way.
Jane felt happy in this new proof of the kind feeling of the family
towards her, and accompanied them to Derbyshire with a lighter heart.
Mr. Phillip's father was a medical man, with an excellent country
practice, intelligent, chatty, and hospitable. He had married a Miss
Stanley, who was not only of very good birth, but who had a
considerable fortune, which was settled on her children. Her eldest
son's portion of it had been the nucleus of the handsome fortune he had
realised in Victoria. The old gentleman had been long a widower, and
his two unmarried daughters lived with him, and kept his house, while
his younger son had been brought up to assist his father in his
profession, and eventually to succeed to the practice, but he, seeing
how well his brother Stanley had got on, had a great hankering after an
unlimited sheep-run in Australia.
The Misses Phillips were not young, but they were well dressed, well
mannered, and good looking. There was a happy, prosperous, confident
air about both of the sisters, and especially about the younger of the
two. They were the darlings of their father, the first in their own set
of acquaintances, a great deal taken notice of, on account both of
their mother's social position and their father's professional talent,
by county families; successful in domestic management, successful in
society, of good understanding, and well educated, the Misses Phillips
were looked up to very much, and felt that they deserved to be so. They
were much disappointed in their brother's wife; from his letters, and
the likenesses he had sent home, they were prepared for a romantic and
interesting, as well as beautiful woman, but her want of education and
of understanding, which they soon discovered on personal acquaintance,
was most mortifying to ladies who thought they possessed both in a high
degree, and they were quite distressed at having to introduce her into
society. The husband saw and felt their coldness towards his wife,
while Mrs. Phillips filled his ears with complaints of their
uppishness, and their disagreeable ways.
Mr. Phillips had been so proud and so fond of his sisters, and had
talked so much to her about their beauty, their cleverness, and their
goodness, that she thought she too had a right to be disappointed.
Their beauty had diminished during his fourteen years' absence in
Australia; their cleverness only made her uncomfortable; and their
goodness did not seem to extend to her. What right had a couple of
ordinary-looking old maids to look down on her, a married woman of so
many years' standing, so much younger and handsomer? She liked Jane
Melville far better than either of her sisters-in-law, for, with more
real mental superiority, there was an inferiority in position that set
her at her ease.
Mr. Phillips was a little disappointed with his sisters, though he
would scarcely own it to himself. The blooming girls of twenty-one and
seventeen whom he had left were somewhat faded in the course of the
many years' absence; and the very different lives that they had led
made them take different views of most subjects. Their opinions had
hardened separately, and when they met again they did not harmonize as
they had done. His sisters were more aristocratic in all their tastes
and feelings than the Australian squatter; they had scarcely mixed at
all with children, and had no patience with his wild bush children,
whose frankness and audacity were so terribly embarrassing; and they
had shown their disappointment at his MESALLIANCE very decidedly.
But on this occasion things went on much better; both Mrs. Phillips and
the children were decidedly improved, and the sisters-in-law gave Miss
Melville the credit of it, and liked her accordingly.
Miss Melville was presentable anywhere, though she was only a
governess. The tale which Mr. Phillips told of her reverse of fortune
interested them all, particularly the old gentleman.
He had met with Jane's uncle when he had been studying in Paris, who
was then only a younger son, and had been just released from the strict
discipline of a Scotch puritanical home, and not being ambitious of
filling the subordinate office of "Jock, the laird's brother," wished
to learn a profession, and thought he might try medicine as well as
anything else. He was then clever, idle, and extravagant, but a great
favourite with everybody. Jane questioned Dr. Phillips about the date
of this acquaintance, but it had occurred before the supposed time of
Francis's birth, so that he could throw no light on that question.
Still she wrote to Francis on the subject, though she had thought his
letters lately had been colder than before, and feared that his
friendship for her was not so deeply seated as hers for him. Willing to
show that her feelings towards him were unchanged, she entered into the
same minute description of the family she was at present living with as
she had done of the pupils, and the employers, and the visitors in
London. She was at this time more interested in Dr. Phillips and his
younger son Vivian than in any of the ladies of the family, and felt
particularly puzzled to explain the desire of the latter to leave the
country and his profession, when he had talents quite sufficient to
make a good figure, for such a life as Mr. Brandon's had been in the
Australian bush. He was the most scientific man whom Jane had met with
in society; and, as he met with very little sympathy from either of his
sisters in his chemical experiments or his geological researches, he
appreciated her intelligent and inquiring turn of mind. There were many
things he could throw light on which would be of service to Tom Lowrie,
and were mentioned in her letters to him. Young Dr. Vivian Phillips had
submitted to a great deal of the inevitable spoiling which an only
brother at home receives. Georgiana was very strongly attached to him;
and though Harriett had always said that she preferred Stanley, yet,
when he came back, with his uncongenial wife and large family of young
children to engross nine-tenths of his heart, her partiality for him
seemed to fade away, and she felt that Vivian was far better than the
other--at least, more clever and more English in his ideas; but Stanley
was more liberal, and had a better temper. Vivian had fits of bad
temper which no one could conquer, and his sisters found it was the
only plan to let him alone.
Vivian would never think of falling in love with his brother's
governess--he knew his own position too well for that: so that his
sisters had no fear of his being in any danger when Jane joined him in
his experiments in the laboratory, or went out with him and the
children geologising. And they were perfectly right in that surmise. He
liked Jane because he felt her to be a perfectly safe person--just a
little more interesting than a companion of his own sex, and one to
place rather more confidence in, for she had more sympathy and more
enthusiasm; but she had excellent sense, and did not appear to be at
all impressible.
Jane described the beautiful country walks she took, which she was sure
Francis or Elsie would appreciate far better than she could do. She
contrasted the activity and full life of the gentlemen of the house
with the languid idleness of Mrs. Phillips and the busy idleness of her
sisters-in-law, and thought it very unjust that all the work of the
world should be done by the one sex and so little left for the other.
She had thought the Misses Phillips superior to the Swinton young
ladies at first; but on closer acquaintance, she found it quite as
difficult to grow intimate with them. She thought she would prefer the
High Church, and almost Puseyite, tendencies of the English women to
the narrow and gloomy views of her Scotch neighbours; but her
independent turn of mind, her eager love of inquiry and her thirst for
truth, were as much cramped by the one as the other.
An enormous part of the Misses Phillips' lives was occupied in visiting
and receiving visitors. Their superintendence of their father's
household was very different from what had been expected from Jane and
Elsie at Cross Hall. They had old and faithful servants, who knew their
work and did it, and rarely troubled their mistresses for orders. They
did not take the same interest or trouble about the poor which the
Misses Melville had done. If Dr. Phillips mentioned any case of
distress, the cook was directed to send broth, or wine, or they might
even give a little money; but there was no personal inconvenience
suffered or sacrifice made for the relief of want or the comforting of
sorrow. The charity was given with the smallest amount of sympathy, and
accepted with the smallest amount of gratitude.
In public matters, in social progress, in sanitary reforms, all the
gentlemen took a lively interest; but the ladies considered these
things quite out of their own line. There was this difference, however,
between the sisters, that Georgiana (the eldest) could make any
sacrifice cheerfully for any member of her own family, but Harriett was
disinclined to make any, even for them. It is not to be supposed that
the world in general saw all these traits as Jane, in her peculiar
circumstances, and with her observant powers, had so much opportunity
of doing. They were considered to be very superior and very amiable
young ladies, and Mr. Brandon had been rather surprised at himself for
not fixing his affections on Harriett, who, as the favourite sister of
his dearest friend, would be suitable in every respect, and who
appeared to have all the qualifications to make a good wife.