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Rh she did not wish she had acted otherwise. She could not have offered Amy a home when she felt such intense dislike and suspicion of her; when the tones of her voice, the changes of her countenance, the air and manners, all reminded her of one whom she had good reason to dislike and despise. She could not have done her duty by her. Amy Staunton was better situated with the Lindsays, and since her aunt would not take her, let her stay at Branxholm, whatever it might cost Mrs. Hammond, for the time could not be long now that the family would be kept in South Australia. Mr. Hammond was seeing his way now to returning to England himself for some years at least, and, as Mrs. Hammond fondly hoped, for life.

She disliked the colony more now that she had lost prestige in the neighbourhood, and she directed all her influence with her husband towards such arrangements of his affairs as would enable him to leave the colony.