When it was found that she was, in truth, handsome to look upon,--that her words were soft and well chosen,--that she could sit apart and read,--and that she could trample upon Mrs.Crompton in her scorn,--then, for a while, there were some who made little efforts to get into her good graces.

She might even have made an ally of good-natured Mrs.Bones, the wife of the butcher who was going out with his large family to try his fortune at Melbourne.

Mrs.Bones had been injured, after some ship fashion, by Mrs.Crompton, and would have made herself pleasant.

But Mrs.Smith had despised them all, and had shown her contempt, and was now as deeply suspected by Mrs.Bones as by Mrs.
Crompton or Mrs.Callander.
But of all the foes to this intimacy Dick Shand was for a time the most bitter and the most determined No doubt this arose at first from jealousy.

He had declared his purpose of unravelling the mystery; but the task had been taken out of his hands, and the unravelling was being done by another.