on the road, and what you do save will be in wretched order.
Brandon was fairly ruined by going home to England."

"Ruined!" said Harriett Phillips. "He said he was ruined, or something
like it, before he left. Are his affairs really in such a bad state?"

"Oh, it's not exactly his affairs, but he got unsettled and would not
work as he used to do. He overturned most of my arrangements at
Wiriwilta; and I am sure Mr. Phillips will not find himself any the
better for his alterations. He is so foolishly confiding. Now, I like
to look sharply after my people, and then I see what work I get out of
them."

"I think you are quite right, Dr. Grant. I have remarked the want of
that prudence in both Mr. Brandon and my brother. They think it
proceeds from benevolence, but I attribute it more to indolence and the
dislike to give themselves any trouble they can avoid," said Harriett.

Dr. Grant was piqued at being deprived of Mr. Phillips's agency, for
though he had protested against taking it, he had found it very
lucrative; he was also piqued at Mrs. Phillips staying in town for her
confinement, though he always declared that he detested practising, and
only did it as an accommodation to his neighbours; but both things had
added alike to his emolument and his importance, and he was extremely
jealous of any slight being cast either on his business knowledge or
his professional skill.

On this occasion he offered to stay in Melbourne for a week or so after
Phillips left, merely as a friend, to see how Mrs. Phillips was going
on, and to take up a full and satisfactory account to the station.
Though he was not her medical attendant, he was as much in the house,
and far more than he had ever been before. When the week was over, he
appeared to be in no hurry to go away, but wrote to Phillips instead;
and hung about the house, went errands for her or her sister-in-law,
took Harriett out for walks and drives, brought all his Melbourne
acquaintances to call on her, and to inquire for Mrs. Phillips and the
baby, and was himself engaged for several hours of every day in
conversation with Harriett.

He had come to Melbourne determined to fall in love with Miss Phillips,
whose likeness he had seen and admired at Wiriwilta years ago, and
whose face and figure, when seen in reality quite came up to his
expectations, while her air and manners were exactly suited to his
taste. He knew that she had a fortune--not large, certainly, but
tempti