he most agreeable
instances;"--and Mr. Brandon looked at Elsie as if he meant what he
said.

"It does one good to see a man enjoying a party; our fashionable style
is for the indifferent and the done up," said Elsie, with a smile. "I
do not know if gentlemen enjoy life in spite of that nonchalant or
dismal manner; but I know it is not pleasant for the lookers on."

"I cannot see why they should assume such a disagreeable style of
conduct. To me, you English and Scotch people seem the most enviable in
existence--amusement after amusement, and education, elegance, and
refinement to heighten every enjoyment. I often say to myself, 'Walter
Brandon, my good fellow, this will not last; you must go back to your
stations and your troubles in a few months;' but for the present I am
in Elysium."

By this time they had finished their dance, and were standing beside
Jane. She looked up at him with her steady eyes--"The happiness is in
yourself--not in the country, in the amusements, or in the society. You
have earned a holiday, and you enjoy it."

"All Australians feel the drawbacks of the colonies when they come to
visit England," said Mr. Brandon.

"It depends on their circumstances, whether they do or not. I often
wish that I were there," said Jane.

"And so do I," said Miss Rennie, who with Francis had just joined them.
"There must be a grandeur and a freshness about a new country that we
cannot find here; and those wonderful gold diggings, too, must be the
most interesting objects in nature."

"The very ugliest things you ever saw--and as for grandeur or
freshness, I never saw or felt it. The finest prospect I could see in
Victoria is the prospect of getting out of it, particularly now that
the diggings have spoiled the colony. We cannot forget Old England."

"Oh! of course I like patriotism," said Miss Rennie; "no country can be
to us like the land of our birth."

"But I think we should try to like the land of adoption also," said
Jane. "The Anglo-Saxons have been called the best of colonists, because
they have adapted themselves so well to all sorts of climates and all
sorts of circumstances."

"True--true enough," said Mr. Brandon. "The Adelaide men who came
across to the diggings used to talk with the greatest enthusiasm about
their colony, their farms, their gardens, their houses, their society.
I fancied that it was because they left it for a rougher life, and that
Adelaide was like a little England to them;