‘Oh! the duties is easy enough. I shall want you to be under myself, and do all the palavering and writing that I can’t manage. You see, Mr Harland, I’m a rich man, but I’m a plain man, and I haven’t had much education, so that when I want to invest money, or transact a heavy sale, figures and such things are a trouble to me. I call the place “a land-agent’s,” because I don’t know a better name for it. But, in reality, it’s a friend and help that I want, and if you’re willing to undertake the situation, why, it’s yours.’ ‘I accept it with gratitude,’ replied Harland. ‘As I have told you honestly, I have been living very much from hand to mouth lately, on account of serious losses through the defalcations of a friend, and was on the look-out for active employment. Your offer suits me exactly. I have long wished to visit New Zealand, and am charmed at the prospect of doing so in such company. I thank you very much for thinking of me.’ ‘That’s settled then, sir; but we haven’t mentioned money yet. I will pay your passage out, and give you six hundred pounds for the first year. What I shall do afterwards, we’ll talk of afterwards. Will that satisfy you for the present?’ ‘Perfectly,’ said Harland, quietly. The game was in his own hands now, and he was quivering with delight, but he did not want the old man to see it. ‘And perhaps you’d like a little advance for your outfit,’ continued Vansittart. ‘If it’s perfectly convenient,’ stammered Harland. ‘Of course, it’s convenient,’ replied the other, as he wrote a cheque for fifty pounds, and pushed it across the table to him. ‘I expected as you’d want it. And now, remember this, my boy. Though I like you well enough, I’ve given you the appointment as much for the sake of my wife and daughter as myself. For they’ve both taken a fancy to you, and want you to go out with us, and so any little attention you can pay them on the voyage--I being but a poor sailor--will be very thankfully received, and valued accordingly.’ ‘It will be my greatest pleasure to look after Mrs and Miss Vansittart on board the _Pandora_, and supply your place as far as possible,’ replied Harland, gracefully. ‘Very good,’ said his host. ‘We’ve settled the matter now, and can join the ladies.’ So Godfrey Harland, looking quite a ‘swell’ in his well-cut evening suit, entered the drawing-room a minute afterwards, with fifty pounds in his pocket, and something very much like _carte blanche_ to make love to the heiress of the Vansittarts. The mother received him with unfashionable cordiality, shaking his hand vehemently in token of the new bond between them, whilst the daughter beamed welcome upon him with her eyes, from the depths of a large arm-chair, half shrouded from observation by a gigantic palm which rose six feet high from an Etruscan vase of costly majolica.